#175: Can You Trust Your Wife?

Listen, we know it’s a bit wonky but when it becomes a thing everyone in the legal world talks about in six months, we want to remember we tried to get you to read it here and now. This week a 2025 docket was unsealed in Massachusetts. In it, a man now being charged with securities fraud successfully convinced a judge that the marital communications privilege applies at all times, including during a law enforcement investigation and prior to criminal charges. Welcome to a new era of filter teams and privilege. Start by reading Judge Sorkin’s November 2025 opinion. Then move to the Justice Department lawyers pleading with him to reconsider an order that may upend long followed law enforcement investigation processes everywhere. And then end with Sorkin denying it.  The order is currently stayed. DOJ is appealing it. The appellate docket is still sealed. 

Hidden camera fan and terminally online guy, James O’Keefe, successfully got a lawsuit filed by a former CIA contractor against him dismissed. That was a horribly constructed sentence but it’s 6:38am and we desperately need to get this issue published. 

A former NFL player was sentenced to over 16 years in prison for Medicare fraud.

The feds clawed back some money from a multimillion-dollar crypto scam.

Prosecutors asked for a U.S. Army major, who’s accused of serving as a leader in a separatist force in Cameroon, to be detained after he received a vaccine for yellow fever arguing that it's a sign he’s about to make a run for it. We wrote about the case several weeks ago. Side note, we’re not sure what to make of the fact that a man accused of organizing an coup overseas is still employed by the U.S. military.

The Justice Department is quibbling with Anthropic over whether they emailed the right person.

Sticking with the petty theme this week, the Justice Department is also fighting over page limits in a case against the administration in D.C.

For readers keeping track of our coverage of the teen who allegedly threatened to attack a Christian music festival in the name of ISIS while playing Roblox, his trial was supposed to begin next week. That is, until the judge in the case decided not to allow prosecutors to introduce a slew of other character evidence, and the Justice Department then appealed the ruling and asked for the trial to be stayed. As a reminder, the Justice Department asked for the Fifth Circuit to reassign him after he dismissed the indictment in the case. He’s still presiding over the case, but has since announced his early retirement from the bench.

A Brown University student, who was falsely named as the perpetrator of a mass shooting on campus in December 2025, sued several local television stations in Wisconsin for reporting that he was the shooter.

Judge Pittman has reached his limit with one plaintiff. There’s a backstory to it all.

An Ohio grand jury indicted three people behind a purported prostitution ring.

Our friend Tyler McBrien made a helpful cool map for how to access local court records in each state.

OpenAI was sued by the family of a victim in the Florida State shooting. The alleged shooter reportedly used its AI model to plan his attack.

Chicken Soup for the Soul demands that Anthropic stop using its purported information to train Claude’s soul.

A true crime influencer sued a Tennessee sheriff after he and his family members got restraining orders against her.

The Justice Department announced its plan to pursue denaturalizations for 12 more individuals. We wrote about the push to strip more folks of their citizenship last month.

We’re on a settlement watch in the defamation suit brought by Kash Patel’s girlfriend against a conservative online personality.

A purchase of the Finance Tower in Brussels was apparently poorly financed.

The plaintiff attorney helping sue Leon Black over his purported ties to Jeffrey Epstein can’t stay out of hot water.

For readers keeping track of our coverage of the teen who allegedly threatened to attack a Christian music festival in the name of ISIS while playing Roblox, his trial is set to begin next week. Prosecutors and the public defenders representing him fired off dueling pre-trial motions this week. The judge, who recently announced his early retirement from the bench, is still presiding over the trial, despite the government’s attempt to have the Fifth Circuit pull him off the case.

A traffic stop in New York reportedly led law enforcement to discover 89 guns and arrest three men, including one accused of contributing to a fatal automobile accident in Canada.

The company behind the Singaporean ship that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was indicted.

The feds say a Florida man helped launder millions for drug traffickers.

One of our favorite cases from recent memory is a guy who forged the signatures of a bunch of judges in the North District of Illinois and then tried to get them all recused from his case (given the forged signatures and all). He ended up getting a judge from Indiana, who weighed in this week, dismissing one of 11 charges against him, because he had already been fined $25,000 for the same offense of “willful fraud on the court.” Apparently, prosecuting him for it would have been double jeopardy.

A social worker who works with adolescents in D.C. was charged with allegedly falsifying billing.

Our editors would be disappointed by the grammar in this alleged bank robber’s note: “me and my partner have a gun and we will shoot you or anyone in this bank if you notify any staff, police or security.”

Anyone up for some Kyrsten Sinema tea from a divorce case in North Carolina?

It was the week of all weeks in South Carolina. Flying under the radar: The cop who fatally shot Walter Scott, an unarmed Black man, in the back during a traffic stop gone wrong in 2015, is set to transition to a halfway house after serving 8 of his 20-year federal sentence. Now, for the big news, the South Carolina Supreme Court cleared disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh’s double murder conviction and remanded the case back for a new trial, finding that comments a clerk made to jurors had swayed the trial against Murdaugh. If you haven’t been following along, here are the cliff notes since he was convicted: The clerk who made the comments resigned in disgrace and pleaded guilty to misconduct in office, perjury, and obstruction of justice. The curmudgeony judge who presided over the trial retired. Murdaugh’s defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, was hired to represent Hunter Biden. The true crime podcaster, who broke parts of the case and was featured in a Hulu miniseries about the murders, was held in contempt for disobeying a court order in a related civil case. The lead investigator on the case was at the center of another high-profile murder case falling apart because of misconduct by law enforcement and prosecutors. And the lead prosecutor, Creighton Waters, started a band that played at a True Crime conference.

Another Florida man was indicted for allegedly making threats against VA officials.

A former top official at DHS will have to sit for a deposition in a case over the terminations of FEMA employees, despite leaving the government.

The FBI arrested a veteran and alleged DIY bombmaker. Agents say the man behind the ISIS-inspired attack on New Orleans on New Year's Day 2025 used the bombmaker’s video instructions online.

Our song of the week is unlike all other previous songs of the week.

A former aide to Gavin Newsom is set to plead guilty to several fraud charges.

An Iranian man, who reportedly admitted to helping smuggle a person with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps into the U.S., pleaded guilty to smuggling and receiving child abuse materials. As a result, a lot of news organizations rushed to push out stories on the case. Longtime Court Watch readers may recall we told you about the case…<checks notes> last year.

A luxury yacht company agreed to pay a $200,000 fine for using Burmese teak, a tropical hardwood, to build its yachts.

A journalist wants to know what the Mexican government asked the FBI to question him about.

Lord grant us the pettiness of a federal public defender trying to troll an assistant U.S. Attorney. 

Charlie Kirk’s security officer says that Candace Owen’s podcast guest is dodging a subpoena. 

Another week, another million in ill-gotten cryptocurrency. 

We struggle to think of another head of a terrorist organization that got less time in prison. 

Kash Patel is appealing the order that dismissed his defamation lawsuit against a former FBI agent/MSNBC commenter. 

A reminder that The Washington Post doesn’t have a dedicated reporter covering the Eastern District of Virginia courts anymore. Completely unrelated, Amazon’s lawyers have been waging a multi year multi-million dollar lawsuit that they continue to lose at nearly every stage of litigation. And it resulted in at least two criminal cases being dismissed shortly after the now-laid off Washington Post reporter noted the global conglomerate's curious relationships with federal prosecutors. We’d also note that this month Amazon’s lawyers were pushing pretty hard to make life complicated for one of those individuals who was charged and then dismissed. Maybe The Star/NOTUS wants to kick the tires on this case? 

The New York Times may be facing a forthcoming lawsuit filed by the state of Israel, but first, it must contend with a 62 billion dollar lawsuit in Tennessee. 

Columbia University asked to seal a filing that details a potential settlement with a student accused of sexual assault. The judge approved it. But adorably, no one thought to ask that the motion to seal be sealed, so now we know about a possible settlement. 

Nine former clients have sued an immigration lawyer, arguing that she, quite literally, promised miracles. 

The Sixth Circuit said that state judges in Kentucky can campaign on political affiliations. 

Flying way under the radar: The latest exhibits in the Islamic Relief civil case against <checks notes> Islamic Relief are a fascinating look into how nonprofit organizations are trying to navigate the current political climate, IRS investigations, and congressional inquiries.