Dear listeners,
We have a lot of really stupid litigation to cover this week, starting with the JP Morgan lawsuit so many of you asked us about. This is the case of Chirayu Rana, an ex-banker who has made salacious allegations against a former JP Morgan colleague, saying she forced him into a sexual relationship, spiked his drink with Viagra, threatened his career, and racially belittled his wife. It’s great tabloid fodder, but the emerging consensus is that Rana is making it up.
Among other blows to Rana’s credibility, the New York Post reports he obtained bereavement leave from JP Morgan for his father’s death, but the Post found his father in Virginia, very much alive and insisting that his son is a “good guy.” Also, Rana apparently discussed very similar allegations with a public online lawyer chatbot — and in the version he apparently gave the chatbot, the abuse happened when he worked at Morgan Stanley and the abuser was a man.
What can you do if you are a bank or a banker and someone makes preposterous allegations against you in a legal filing, which is privileged against defamation claims? Well, you could sue for malicious prosecution or abuse of process, but typically, the lunatic you’re up against isn’t a deep pocket, and your best course of action is to seek dismissal and draw as little attention as possible.
Speaking of dumb litigation, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have settled, with no exchange of funds between the two sides. The Post cites “sources” who say legal bills for the two sides totaled $60 million — the sourcing on that number is a little thin, but Ken considers it a plausible magnitude for an 18-month litigation involving dozens of fancy lawyers.
Also this week:
Matt Taibbi lost his dumb lawsuit against Eoin Higgins.
A Michigan defendant who made way more threatening-sounding comments than James Comey ever did nonetheless enjoys First Amendment protection (but will have to seek relief in state court if prosecutors go after him again).
DOJ apologizes to a federal judge for not telling her a detained migrant in her court was wanted for murder (she released the migrant and then DHS attacked her for releasing an accused murderer).
The DOJ seeks to memory-hole the Jerome Powell subpoenas (which would perhaps make it easier to reissue them later).
Gavin Newsom is getting further than we expected with a kinda dumb defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
And preservationists try to stop Donald Trump from tearing up the East Potomac Park golf course to build a championship-style course.
We hope you enjoy the episode,
Josh
