Note: in the video above is mashup of the Hales’ crew analyzing the recent affidavit filed by Bruce Matzkin
Bruce Matzkin made another appearance in the first federal case Jeremy Hales filed against John Cook and Michelle Preston, and the Halesverse was giddy with joy.
Immediately after Matzkin filed a five-page affidavit, Jeremy Hales and his cohorts went into content overdrive.
Halesverse
In the last week, those five pages have generated more than ten hours of content, on numerous YouTube channels.
Megan Fox called it the “WORST Court Filing We’ve Ever Read?”
From the lowlights, I saw Mr. Coop struggle to understand a court order, while making fun of Matzkin.
Shizzy fell in love with the word “inappropriate” though I don’t think it means what he thinks it means.
TUG, Megan, Hales, and his girlfriend, all reminisced about the time that Bruce Matzkin asked to appear remotely but was denied.
If you watched any- or God forbid all- of their lame content, it’s unlikely you understand why the affidavit was filed or how it may affect the case.
The recusal
That’s what I intend to do.
The whole thing started when Jeremy Hales- mad that Magistrate Bolitho recommended to dismiss his Fed 2 case with prejudice- filed motions to recuse Bolitho from both cases where he was presiding.
Judge Hinkle denied the recusal motion in Fed 2, but in Fed 1, Magistrate Bolitho handled the recusal denial.
Hales was hopping mad that in April 2025 only his attorney, Randall Shochet, was sanctioned for $4,000 even though in anticipation of the hearing, Magistrate Bolitho told both lawyers to, “bring your checkbooks.”
About a year later, Bruce Matzkin has still not been sanctioned, a source of great consternation from the Hales crew.
In Bolitho’s denial of the recusal motion he stated, “The court would note that it has already made clear that the misconduct of the Defendant’s former counsel {Matzkin} would be addressed. It has not been addressed yet because this case is, and has been, stayed. And courts generally do not issue substantive orders directing people to do things in cases that are stayed.”
Magistrate Bolitho also noted that this complaint, “provides no basis for a disqualification,” however, Shochet has room to complain.
If Bolitho is still planning on sanctioning Bruce Matzkin, his management of the docket is atrocious.
Matzkin has been off the case for a year. While it’s stayed due to a bankruptcy now, there was approximately three months for Magistrate Bolitho to issue sanctions.
If he were to do it when the case ends, he would be doing it for a lawyer off a case for approximately two years. That’s something the Senate should take notice of if a President is dumb enough to nominate Magistrate Bolitho to a full District Judge.
With Bolitho’s words hovering over the case, Matzkin filed his affidavit in his defense against possible sanctions.
Bolitho did not specify what conduct could face sanctions, so Matzkin cast a wide net.
The most likely culprit was a set of emails which triggered Bolitho’s unprofessional and unhinged response.
The emails
Back in the winter of 2025, Shochet filed a motion to withdraw Matzkin’s pro hoc vice status, claiming that Matzkin sent him five mean emails.
The pro hoc vice status allowed Matzkin to represent John Cook and Michelle Preston in this case.
Shochet filed it without conferring- thereby ambushing Matzkin- and Magistrate Bolitho filed an order to show cause before Matzkin could respond and even ordered Matzkin, who lives in the northeast, to fly to Florida for a hearing to be yelled at.
Matzkin subsequently attempted to explain the emails, and he did so again in the affidavit.
Matzkin later filed a response submitting thirty-five emails which Shochet sent to him, using the same salty language.
Shochet was sanctioned $4,000 for two frivolous filings; he was not sanctioned for any of the emails which Magistrate Bolitho later called, “two sides of the same coin.”
Sanctioning Matzkin now for his emails would be arbitrary and capricious.
April 3, 2025, hearing about the emails
The most likely source of sanctions is for missing the hearing where this was addressed. In his affidavit, Matzkin explained that he had voluntarily withdrawn from the case, making it moot.
However, at the time of the hearing, Magistrate Bolitho had not yet released Matzkin, and an order is the force of law.
Magistrate Bolitho has good reason to sanction him for that; however, a good judge would have issued the sanction immediately after the hearing, not years later.
If Magistrate Bolitho issues a sanction, Hales and his crew will crow about winning. They’ll have won nothing. The sanction will be paid to the court not Hales.
It will prove nothing, except providing an end to an ugly case which had no winners.
Post-script
Check out the fundraiser to help me create more articles on the Hales case. Find articles one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one.
