Legal

Donald Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina sent a letter to Mark Pomerantz, author of forthcoming PEOPLE VS. DONALD TRUMP, threatening to “aggressively pursue all legal remedies” against the author and publisher Simon & Schuster if the book is published. The book is due out on February 7. Tacopina’s letter claims Pomerantz has made defamatory statements about Trump, specifically referencing Pomerantz’s resignation letter submitted to the New York County District Attorney’s Office, which is reportedly reproduced in the book. Pomerantz, who was a prosecutor in the criminal investigation of Trump brought by former DA Cy Vance in 2021, wrote that Trump is […]

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg issued a letter on Wednesday to Simon & Schuster warning the publisher that the forthcoming book PEOPLE VS. DONALD TRUMP: AN INSIDE ACCOUNT by Mark Pomerantz, slated for publication on Feb. 7, could violate confidentiality rules and jeopardize continuing investigations of Trump. Pomerantz was a prosecutor in the criminal investigation of Trump brought by former DA Cy Vance in 2021. When Bragg eventually decided not to pursue an indictment in 2022, Pomerantz resigned in protest. The letter from the DA office’s general counsel Leslie Dubeck, which does not seek to block publication, asserts, “Mr. Pomerantz […]

The Authors Guild has filed suit on behalf of a group of authors against Authors Place Press and its owner, Tony Ferraro, for nonpayment. The complaint, filed in US District Court in Florida, alleges that Authors Place Press and its subsidiary Motivational Press failed to pay royalties and provide royalty statements to authors. The 11 plaintiffs also allege that, after they demanded and were denied payment, the company refused to revert the rights to their books to them. “Sometimes they simply ignored the authors’ requests. Other times, they refused the requests. Still other times, they threatened authors with the destruction of […]

A year after he was arrested and charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to a years-long manuscript phishing scam, Filippo Bernardini pleaded guilty in Federal Court to one count of wire fraud. As part of his plea, he agreed to pay restitution of $88,000. Bernardini will be sentenced by District Judge Colleen McMahon on April 5. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. But his lawyer, public defender Hannah McCrea, said he will likely face a sentence of 15 to 21 months imprisonment under recommended sentencing guidelines and in an agreement with the […]

After multiple adjournments as various offers from the defendant were considered by the government, accused manuscript thief Filippo Bernardini is expected to plead guilty on Friday to wire fraud. The NYT got the news from emails sent to victims from the US district attorney in the Southern District of New York. That’s a more serious disposition than the deferred prosecution request (an informal type of probation) that the government was asked to consider during the summer.

Legal news this year was dominated by the Penguin Random House antitrust trial, with the bulk of our reporting on the case running from July through October. The biggest publishing story of the year, which tracked the government’s (successful) attempt to block PRH from merging with Simon & Schuster, began with the entire industry learning the term monopsony and ended with the resignation of PRH ceo Markus Dohle. In between, we heard testimony from experts, PRH executives, and industry insiders about how in-house competition works and witnessed the coining of a new term–Anticipated Top Best Sellers. Judge Florence Pan presided, […]