The Santos Insurgency, Sorkin’s Strike Fears, East Wing Imbroglio

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon download of Puck’s freshest reporting.

Today, we lead with Eriq Gardner’s close reading of Sam Bankman-Fried’s surprising defense strategy. His Cohen & Gresser attorneys seem poised to contest the definition of “fraud,” itself—but is that enough to upend a seemingly slam-dunk prosecution?

Then, below the fold: Lauren Sherman reveals a rift inside the two-year-old Tiffany-LVMH marriage. Tara Palmeri gets the skinny on the Great Neck George Santos resistance, before setting the record straight on a WHCD brush-up. And on The Powers That Be, Matt Belloni joins Ben Landy to break down the latest development and deal points in the writers’ strike, and consider Aaron Sorkin’s prediction of a WGA-showrunner schism.

ERIQ GARDNER

Lawyers for Bankman-Fried are hoping to turn a seemingly slam-dunk prosecution into an inscrutable legalistic debate over the definition of “fraud,” itself. It might just work.

LAUREN SHERMAN

Inside the rift between an Arnault heir and his top marketer, plus the Nike and Basquiat and Beyoncé of it all, as America’s greatest luxury brand merges into France’s biggest company.

TARA PALMERI

Jessica Hoy was effectively disavowed by the White House as a formal brand representative for the first daughter. But, as is often the case with the East Wing, it’s not so simple.

TARA PALMERI

Indictment-magnet George Santos has a host of political and legal headaches. Here’s the one he never saw coming: the Gen Z Long Island native ready to take his seat and eat his lunch.