Episode description

Welcome to the first Serious Trouble episode of 2025! For all subscribers this week, Ken and Josh discuss Luigi Mangione’s indictments in both Pennsylvania and New York, and he’s also the subject of a federal criminal complaint. Both New York and the Feds look eager to prosecute him, and there’s going to be wrangling over who gets to go first, with an important difference in the stakes — he’s facing a capital federal charge, while New York does not have the death penalty. New York’s top count — murder as an act of terrorism — poses some challenges for the state to prove.

For paying subscribers: The dueling lawsuits brought by the actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, each accusing the other of wrongdoing during and after the making of their hit film “It Ends With Us;” a discussion of the appellate ruling that upheld one of the judgments E. Jean Carroll won against Donald Trump; a look at why Matt Gaetz, even after resigning from Congress, couldn’t block the release of the ethics committee report that alleges he had sex with a 17-year-old in violation of Florida law; and an update on the civil lawsuit against Jay-Z, who will continue to defend himself against a rape allegation from an anonymous plaintiff — and about how his hyperaggressive lawyer, Alex Spiro, is pissing off Judge Analisa Torres.

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