Need a Lawyer? DC Sure Does

Chart of the Week #45

Everyone’s talking about DOGE’s reign of terror in D.C.—I’ve written about it a fair bit in these pages, too (catch up here and here if you missed it). But here's something you might find interesting...

Several smaller news outlets have been reporting that Google searches for “lawyer” in Washington, D.C., have skyrocketed since Trump's inauguration.

Now, as logical as this might sound given the type of creatures that populate the swamp, I'm naturally skeptical. My first thought was: "Maybe this is happening everywhere? Perhaps lawyer searches are up across the entire country?"

So I decided to do a little digging of my own. Turns out, nope—it's all DC. Take a look at this week's chart below—showing lawyer searches in D.C. (orange) compared to searches across the U.S. (blue) over the past twelve months.

The pattern couldn't be clearer. Lawyer searches remained flat until Trump got inaugurated—then they absolutely exploded in DC. (Guess these people aren't big on planning ahead.) Meanwhile, they remained largely unchanged across the rest of the country.

And this isn't just a momentary panic. Throughout February, these searches have remained about 300% higher than the previous 11 months.

Interestingly, searches have also spiked for terms like "criminal defense," "offshore bank,” "and “wire money.”

If I were the cynical type, I might conclude all these are coming from government insiders who’ve been illegally siphoning off taxpayer money for years. And now that the party's seemingly coming to an end, they're desperately looking to protect themselves and hide their ill-gotten gains.

Regards,

Lau Vegys