Episode notes
DOCKET ALERTS: Todd Blanche was confirmed as permanent attorney general after Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy remembered that he's an unprincipled hack. Trump's lackey Will Scharf is being promoted from staff secretary to White House Counsel in advance of the midterms. The White House is once again trying to fire Federal Reserve Board Member Lisa Cook after the Supreme Court blocked it the first time. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Senator Mike Lee, who vowed to block the Senate going into recess until it passed the SAVE America Act. He did not. Instead Majority Leader John Thune made him preside over…
Podcast
Law and Chaos
Liz Dye; Andrew Torrez · News · English
Ignorance of the law is no excuse! That's true for a traffic stop, and it's true if you want to participate in whatever's left of American democracy. If the events since the 2016 election taught us anything, it's that tuning out is not an option. Legal journalists Liz Dye and Andrew Torrez break dow
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E258 · 28 Aug 2026 · 1 hr
Ep 258 — Florida Corruptionpalooza
DOCKET ALERTS: Washington Post opinion writer Karen Attiah, who was fired for her remarks after the death of Charlie Kirk, has been reinstated to her job after winning in arbitration. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook responded to Trump's latest effort to fire her by pointing out that multiple members of Trump's own cabinet made the same paperwork error she did on a mortgage application, and no one is accusing them of fraud. Judge David Hittner, an 87-year-old Reagan appointee, struck down Texas's drag ban, finding that it would necessarily criminalize a lot of performances that are not…
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S257 · 25 Aug 2026 · 42 min
Ep 257 — That Time When EBay Lost Its Mind
DESCRIPTION: It's a special episode today. We'll spend the whole show diving into the debacle of eBay, a $50 billion company, launching a harassment campaign against a middle-aged couple in Massachusetts. Come for the corporate bigwigs sending live roaches by mail, stay for the national security kerfuffle. It's a wild story, and it even has a happy ending. Steiner v. EBay https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60073359/steiner-v-ebay-inc US v. Baugh https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/18602070/united-states-v-baugh Show Links: https://www.lawandchaospod.com/ BlueSky: @LawAndChaosPod Threads:…
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E256 · 20 Aug 2026 · 59 min
Ep 256 — Natalie, Hide the Ketchup!
DOCKET ALERTS: US Attorney Jeanine Pirro wants to leave the door open to re-charging David Hearn for damaging the reflecting pool, although she concedes that literally everything she said in her original indictment was a lie. Pirro is also doing her darnedest to keep a lady locked up for the high crime of spraypainting . Judge Reed O'Connor is trying for a third time to allow manufacturers to sell ghost guns, no matter what the Supreme Court says. We're still waiting on the Supreme Court to say whether Trump can keep building his ballroom, or will have to cease above-ground construction as…
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E255 · 18 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 13 min
Ep 255 — Double the Jeopardy, Double the Fun
DOCKET ALERTS: The Supreme Court denied Trump's motion for rehearing in the first E. Jean Carroll case. Time to pay up, creep! Federal Judge Lynn Winmill invalidated Idaho's abortion ban insofar as it contains no exception to preserve the health of the pregnant person — including mental health. Along the way, he took apart the Supreme Court's hack historical analysis in Dobbs. DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Josh Autenrieth, who bombed spectacularly on his first and only outing as an expert witness. During deposition, the plaintiffs lawyer Daniel Moye caught Autenreith fabricating his entire report…
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E254 · 14 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
Ep 254 — More Like the Department of Manifest Injustice
DOCKET ALERTS: The Kennedy Center board of trustees is back on its BS. After being ordered to take Trump's name off the side of the building, they've now voted again to put it back on. They also voted to close the facility for two years. Rep. Joyce Beatty, who brought the lawsuit that forced them to back off the first time, vows to fight on. Meanwhile musician Chuck Redd was just awarded $252,000 in attorneys fees after the Center sued him for breaching a contract he never signed. Judge Roy Altman is Aileen Cannon-balling it up in Trump's trollsuit against the BBC. This week he allowed Trump…
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E252 · 7 Aug 2026 · 55 min
Ep 252 — Blanche, Boutros, and Buc-ee's
DOCKET ALERTS: Todd Blanche advanced out of the Judiciary Committee and faces a vote by the full Senate on whether to confirm him as Attorney General. Will Republicans defy—JK,LOL. Journalist Katie Phang's lawsuit against Blanche for failing to disclose all documents required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act hit a snag when the government just plum forgot to file an answer to her complaint. The DOJ also failed to provide unredacted documents to Judge Emmet Sullivan for review in chambers. Judge Sullivan ordered Blanche to personally appear in court on August. 13. DOOFUS OF THE DAY:…
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E251 · 4 Aug 2026 · 57 min
Ep 251 — You Whack The Guy, You Don't 86 Him
Andrew is flying solo today. He's got three stories about the petty incompetence of this administration. First, we start off with the likely impending confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General after the DOJ finally put in writing that the $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization" slush fund is dead. The Trump tax giveaway is still alive, though, and that means so is Judge Williams's investigation as to whether the President committed a fraud on the court. Next, we delve into the unraveling of DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro's ham-handed efforts to try and indict a former Olympian for vandalizing…
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E250 · 31 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 6 min
Ep 250 — Trump Corruption-palooza (Ft. Zach Everson)
It's our semiquincentennial! And we're celebrating with a long-form interview with Zach Everson, research director of the Trump Accountability Project. Zach joins us to discuss how cryptocurrency powered Donald Trump's massively successful grift of billions of dollars, and what we can do about it. Along the way, we also discuss the proposed CLARITY ACT , and how the fake ethics provisions added by Republicans were so bad that the bill itself is likely to die on the vine. Thank you for being with us for 250 episodes! CLARITY ACT- HR 3633…
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E249 · 28 Jul 2026 · 53 min
Ep 249 — DHS Voter Lists?
DOCKET ALERTS: The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is on hold well into next year. The parties stipulated that the merger would not go through pending trial in the antitrust case brought by twelve state AGs, despite massive financial penalties for Paramount if the deal is delayed. Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America has filed a similar antitrust action , which has also been assigned to Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín. Trump's newest tariff scheme, based on findings of anticompetitive use of forced labor by our trade competitors, drew multiple legal challenges . Learning Resources v. US ,…
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E248 · 24 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 5 min
Ep 248 — Tariff Man Returns
DOCKET ALERTS: After SecDef Hegseth ordered testosterone testing for all troops over 30 and offered hormone replacement therapy to all, Judge Ana Reyes ordered the government to explain how this is different from the healthcare for trans men which they just banned. On Tuesday, a judge in Florida ordered Trump to turn over his financial records to the BBC in his defamation trollsuit . Turns out, when you say you've been damaged to the tune of a $10 billion, they make you show your work! Every House Democrat signed a discharge petition to force a floor vote on Rep. Jamie Raskin's No Corrupt…
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