Welcome to Court Watch #141. It’s good to see your face. If only to tell you Benson Boone has a new lawsuit. And sure, the filing is far from perfect, but it’s working it out. I suppose.
You see, Mr. Boone is playing at Madison Square Garden next week as part of his new worldwide tour, where the cheapest ticket goes for 220 dollars in case you were wondering, and his lawyers want a judge to put a stop to the pesky bootleggers who sell merch outside the Garden before Benny’s jet even touches down. Asking for a temporary restraining order, Boone’s lawyers don’t identify the bootleggers in question but did make a decent case for why they should be able to chase them off if they still show up. Apparently, Toby Keith and Bivens (yes, that Bivens) helped them out. Anyway, we’d have rather spent our money at the Garden singing ‘Sally When The Wine Runs Out’ with our girl Natalie at the top of our lungs, but, alas, PACER fees still exist. We’ll see whether an SDNY judge does a backflip on Boone’s motion.
Thanks for indulging us on the lede. After the week America had, we needed this. And we sincerely hope you knew this earworm song or else none of the above opening made sense. And even if you didn't, that's ok, because mostly we just write for ourselves.
And while Mark Zuckerberg's favorite artist is going after New Yorkers just trying to make a (dis)honest buck, we earned this week’s roundup by reviewing 94 districts to find you the best the U.S. Courts had to offer.
Benny didn’t do it. We did. One, two, one, two, three. Here we go.
The Docket Roundup
The FBI Director’s girlfriend is suing a former FBI whistleblower for defamation in what will undoubtedly become the most terminally online discussion this weekend and the top story clicked story in whatever news organization opens our newsletter first and files quickly.
We won’t do the lazy, can’t-even-indict-a-ham-sandwich-thrower line. Instead, let’s use another idiom. The third time was not the charm for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in DC.
The Justice Department announced charges against a former California Superior Court Judge for allegedly sexually assaulting two court employees while in a courthouse.
Apple is suing an ex-software engineer for reportedly sharing details of its newest Apple Watch.
The FBI arrested a man for allegedly threatening an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York.
A former PhD student in the biochemistry department at the University of Utah was charged with stalking another student for two years after the two went out on a single date.
It may not be the Epstein unsealing that anyone expected, but it seems like NBCNews is chasing something.
If you’re delayed becoming a foreign spy, now is your time to chase your dream.
A 30 million dollar Instacart scam, anyone?
Border Patrol agents cracked a human smuggling ring by following an ad on Craigslist.
Here’s the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss Enrique Tarrio’s and four J6ers’ civil suit against the government.
“I’m gonna make it real simple, I’m going to assume that you’re not FBI, and
you’re trying to hurt me, which is, stupid” allegedly says a California man to an FBI agent investigating him for threatening a number of Democratic politicians.
If you ever thought to yourself, does the President of the United States have a website created by his lawyers where his company posts court records regarding the ongoing trademark infringement lawsuit against his supporters? We got you, bro. Take notes, Benny.
FOIA wiz Jason Leopold and Bloomberg are suing the FBI to turn over records about the Bureau’s recent handling of the Epstein files.
It feels weird to have to say this out loud but please don’t leave your gun in your mailbox.
Roblox and Discord are being sued yet again over child safety concerns.
We picked up some new subscribers this week. Which means they unfortunately missed the best lede we ever wrote.
A jury in California convicted a sailor in the U.S. Navy on espionage charges for agreeing to sell secrets in return for a $12,000 bribe from a Chinese intelligence officer.
Four fencers are suing USA Fencing in the Northern District of Texas for false advertising over its policy of permitting trans athletes to participate in tournaments.
A Philadelphia man admitted to making racially inspired death threats to a Philadelphia City Employee.
Here’s the Daily Beast’s response to a defamation lawsuit filed by former Trump campaign manager Chris Lacivita.
An AI company is being sued by a shareholder for reportedly concealing the health of its CEO while earning lower than promised returns.
There was some wild stuff going down in a hotel in Alaska.
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to get involved in the USAID contracts case.
A woman’s TikTok that drew the spotlight of the account “Libs of TikTok” also drew federal charges.
An Olympic sized lawsuit was filed.
Saying the quiet part way too loud: “When [the deputy] informed the other officers that MCINTYRE had spit on him, MCINTYRE spontaneously stated, “I sure the [expletive] did. And I’d spit again, you [expletive].”
Oracle tea, anyone?
You’re about halfway through this issue, which means you like reading Court Watch. Here’s our ask. It’s not about paid subscriptions. Instead, can you tweet/bluesky/threads/linkedin this issue and spread it far and wide? Encourage your friends to subscribe, even if it’s free. We want to expand our subscriber list.
The worst people you know have made a good point. 4Chan is suing the United Kingdom over free speech. Here’s our writeup with 404 Media’s
A man who appears to suffer from mental health issues was arrested by the FBI for allegedly sending threatening emails to the Albuquerque District Attorney’s office and law enforcement.
An associate professor at the University of Tennessee Space Institute is suing over discrimination reportedly stemming from attitudes towards immigrants.
A veteran says he was evicted from the Armed Forces Retirement Home for wearing a MAGA hat.
For our song of the week, we’ve had this medley stuck in our head all week.
Peter’s old boss was interviewed by Ezra Klein and got a shout out by President Obama. To be clear, Peter’s current editor will never be shouted out by a President. Perhaps one day shouted at by a President though.
Mizzou’s Students for Justice in Palestine is suing the school’s president for reportedly not allowing them to participate in its homecoming parade.
A GWU law professor asked a judge to order the feds to turn over info about their approval of the merger between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel.
There are some pretty remarkable allegations involving Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the state of North Dakota, and a warehouse filled with purported classified information.
The Ninth Circuit might hear a case en banc about government employee layoffs.
American Express pushed back against a lawsuit filed by GOP megadonor Elliot Broidy regarding a corporate credit card.
The ex CEO of a social media company named “IRL” was indicted in California for purportedly defrauding 170 million dollars from investors.
A convicted fraudster is in hot water again, just several years after finishing his sentence, allegedly taking a law firm for 2.2 million dollars.
Here’s the latest filing in the case over the Blackhawk pilot who was misidentified and blamed by terminally online engagement farm social media personas for the American Airlines DCA crash in January.
"It is without a doubt the most illegal search I've ever seen in my life. I'm absolutely flabbergasted at what has happened. A high school student would know this was an illegal search," says one federal judge about a case we highlighted last week before the case came to him for arraignment. Knowing the judge, we can probably assume The Honorable is an avid Court Watch subscriber.
Thanks for reading. A final note, we sincerely appreciate that you all allowed us to get outside of our comfort zone to write this piece about the tragedy in Minneapolis this week. We have never gotten as much positive reader feedback as we did from that posting (and only one aggressively antisemitic email which is an impressive feat of bigotry given the topic was entirely about Catholicism). We’ll try our best to not to abuse the privilege of having a newsletter about court records and limit the non-court record writings in the future. But we appreciated your indulgence this week.
We hope you have a relaxing long weekend.