Episode description

Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan was slated to start next week, but it will be delayed due to the late production of a large volume of documents from the US Attorney’s office. And Trump has said he can’t find a bond for the New York Attorney General’s civil judgment against him, so you can expect to see Attorney General Letitia James starting to collect on that judgment by other means quite soon.

In Georgia, Judge Scott McAfee has decided not to disqualify Fani Willis or her office from the RICO prosecution of Trump and his associates. But McAfee’s decision is otherwise scathing. Nathan Wade wins our Senate Twink Memorial Award for Belatedly Good Judgment for changing his mind about an interview on “Meet the Press." Good call, Nathan! In Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon has issued some more bizarre orders in the documents case. What she's doing is not exactly what you would do if you were trying to tank the case, but “incompetent” and “malevolent” are not mutually exclusive theories of what Judge Cannon is up to. And finally, we answer an excellent listener question sent in by Ben Dreyfuss about what lawyers in movies sometimes do when their clients to lie to them.

Free subscribers get the conversations about New York and a bit of the goings on in Georgia. Paid subscribers get the whole shebang, including a conversation about why some of the charges in the Georgia case have been dismissed, and Ken’s explanation of why he’s less like those movie lawyers and more like Alan Dershowitz. Visit serioustrouble.show to upgrade and you'll hear the whole thing.