Dear listeners,
On this week’s show, we delve into the grand jury transcripts from the Broadview Six case, which show an array of embarrassing misconduct by AUSAs from the office of the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. As Ken describes, these are things that AUSAs are very clearly taught not to do. And yet.
Also this week: a couple of new flavors of AI hallucination trouble in the courts. In one case, both sides used error-prone AI to write their motions, leading the judge to disqualify both sides’ attorneys from the case. In three other cases highlighted by Eugene Volokh, judges have admonished attorneys for failing to notice the opposing party’s AI hallucinations. As Ken notes, it is a lawyer’s job to check the other side’s work — and AI is making it easier to find errors at the same time that it’s making it easier to make errors.
Speaking of sloppy lawyering, Donald Trump’s legal team that’s suing the BBC for him isn’t doing such a good job. He’s having APA trouble with his effort to impose high fees on H-1B visas, and the Trump-Kennedy Center lost a lawsuit against a performer who canceled a scheduled performance (the performer had never signed a contract, oops). And Judge Richard! Leon! says there’s no Trump slush fund to enjoin, for now! But he will keep watching! So don’t try any funny business!
Also, Matt Taibbi filed another dumb lawsuit and lost.
Plus: Ken Paxton’s old lawyer endorses against him, and does so in a such a way that he’s careful to avoid breaching rules of professional responsibility — though another lawyer might decide it’s most prudent to keep negative opinions about ex-clients to himself. And we look at ways that being a mess can help you in court: Brallan Perez Alarcon successfully argued that he lacked the requisite intent to threaten ICE agents because he was too drunk. And George Santos is probably too silly to have his threats taken as true, either.
No paywall in this episode; it is available to all subscribers. We hope you enjoy it,
Josh
