There's an old saying that where there's smoke, there's fire. In today's Washington, where there's chaos, there's a law firm billing by the hour.
The dismissal of the Hunter Biden foreign agent lawsuit is just the latest example of a legal landscape that has exploded under the Trump administration not just in volume, but in sheer variety. Courts are clogged. Lawyers are busy. And at the center of nearly every story, there's a retainer being signed somewhere.
Hunter Biden Gets Yet Another Legal Win
The suit against the former first son was brought by America First Legal, a conservative group closely associated with Stephen Miller, one of Trump's most influential White House advisers. The goal was to pressure Hunter Biden into registering with the Justice Department as a foreign agent a legal designation with serious implications based on his past business dealings in Ukraine and China.
The judge didn't even get to the merits of the case. The organization simply didn't have the legal standing to bring it. It was dismissed, quietly and cleanly, adding yet another chapter to the long and winding legal saga that has followed the Biden family for years.
Hunter had already gone through a criminal prosecution, entered a guilty plea, and was subsequently pardoned by his father a move President Biden had previously promised he wouldn't make. Now, with this civil effort also dead on arrival, Hunter Biden can, for the moment, breathe a little easier.
The DOJ as Trump's Legal Shield
Over on the other side of the aisle, the Justice Department is gearing up to ask the Supreme Court to step into Donald Trump's appeal of an $83 million defamation verdict. That case was brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexual assault and won a civil judgment against him. Now, in a move that has raised serious ethical eyebrows, government lawyers are effectively working to protect Trump's personal legal interests a dynamic critics say turns the DOJ into something closer to a private firm for the sitting president.
If the Supreme Court sides with Trump, Carroll's case could be effectively buried.
A City Built for Lawyers Now on Steroids
Washington has always attracted people with law degrees. The federal government, Capitol Hill, K Street lobbying shops, think tanks, trade associations they've all long kept armies of attorneys on payroll. That's just how the city works.
But the current moment feels different in both scale and intensity.
Trump faced two separate impeachment trials during his first term, and both sides the House managers and the defense teams required significant legal muscle. His four criminal indictments after leaving office generated some of the most high-profile legal proceedings in American history.
Now, back in the White House, the legal drama hasn't slowed down it's accelerated.
Comey, Letitia James, and the Politics of Prosecution
Former FBI Director James Comey recently found himself in legal jeopardy after the Trump administration engineered charges against him, forcing him to lawyer up. The case was eventually thrown out. But before Comey could exhale, a second indictment followed this one tied to an image known as the "86*47 seashell photo." Round two of the legal battle is now underway.
New York Attorney General Letitia James faced a similar situation. She was indicted, a move many saw as politically motivated, though that case was also dismissed. Still, navigating even a tossed indictment isn't free it requires counsel, court appearances, and months of legal uncertainty.
Then there's Trump's public call for charges against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whom the president labeled a "lunatic" and accused of inciting violence. The accusation appeared to connect Jeffries' rhetoric specifically a call for "maximum warfare" in the redistricting fights to what Trump framed as a third assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Legal analysts largely dismissed the claim as baseless, but the political heat it generated was very real.
Suing the Press, Targeting Broadcasters
Trump has also gone after the media in a significant way, filing lawsuits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CBS, and ABC, among others. Each suit requires major legal representation on both sides, and several are expected to drag on for years.
Meanwhile, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr opened a review of local broadcast licenses connected to Disney and ABC a move that came suspiciously close on the heels of his public call for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired. The review is widely seen as unlikely to produce meaningful results, but in Washington, "unlikely to succeed" doesn't mean "won't generate billable hours." It absolutely will, possibly for years.
FBI Chief Kash Patel Joins the Fray
Even the country's top law enforcement official isn't above suing someone. FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic after the outlet published a critical profile questioning his conduct and personal behavior, including alleged drinking habits. No classified information was involved just an unflattering story that apparently warranted a quarter-billion-dollar legal response.
Congress Isn't Immune Either
Two House members Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations rather than face the near-certain prospect of expulsion. Both needed legal counsel to navigate their exits. A third member, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, resigned after being convicted of stealing $5 million in FEMA funds a situation that required an entirely different and far more serious kind of legal firepower.
And It Goes Well Beyond the Scandals
Here's what's easy to miss in all the noise: not all of this legal activity involves wrongdoing. DOGE the Department of Government Efficiency has lawyers. Every major think tank in the city has lawyers. Environmental groups, labor unions, tech giants, pro-life organizations they all have legal teams, and they're all busy.
Big Tech in particular has significantly ramped up its lobbying and legal presence in Washington as it works to stay in the good graces of the current administration.
The ousted Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is under investigation by her department's own inspector general. Pro-life groups are locked in ongoing court battles over access to the abortion pill mifepristone, having achieved only a limited procedural win at the Supreme Court so far. Trump continues to cycle through federal prosecutors, firing those he considers insufficiently aggressive and installing new ones each transition generating its own round of legal paperwork and proceedings.
Follow the Glitter
Washington has always been a place where people come to want things power, money, influence, policy change. And in this city, getting what you want almost always means hiring someone with a law degree first.
The attorneys working these cases aren't villains. Most of them are simply doing their jobs, representing clients in a system that demands legal representation at nearly every turn. Like the gold rush prospectors of another era, they go where the opportunity is.
Right now, the opportunity is everywhere.
And it shows no sign of slowing down.
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