How to Straddle the MAGA Divide

Just after 11 a.m.on Oct.

6, a voice of the Trump resistance filled Courtroom 21 of the federal district courthouse in Washington, D.C.Beth Wilkinson, a prominent trial lawyer, was speaking before a judge on behalf of Disney and its ABC network against what she said was a brazen attempt by the Trump administration to hobble a free press: an unscheduled review of ABC’s broadcasting licenses that could eventually force its eight directly owned stations off the air.The network regarded the review as payback for its critical programming, especially jokes by the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that upset President Trump.Ms.

Wilkinson argued that the mere threat of lost licenses meant editorial decision makers were strapped to a guillotine, weighing every word with the blade hanging over their necks.She portrayed the president as a kind of mafioso-in-chief intent on using the government to settle grudges and scores.

“He now has control of vast regulatory powers that he’s willing to unleash against people or organizations who exercise First Amendment speech that he does not like,” she told the judge.Ms.Wilkinson’s tone may have been cutting and her metaphors hyperbolic, but she is not exactly a staple of the “no kings” circuit.A former Justice Department official, Ms.

Wilkinson has represented Democratic politicians facing sexual harassment or assault allegations and helped guide Justice Brett Kavanaugh through his messy Supreme Court confirmation fight.She has defended tobacco companies and drugmakers; she helped the National Football League fight concussion-related suits from ex-players and Microsoft defeat a Biden-era antitrust lawsuit.Earlier this year, the media mogul who controls Paramount, David Ellison, hired her to defend his $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros.

Discovery against an attempt by state attorneys general to derail it.Mr.

Ellison’s father, Larry, a founder of Oracle, is close to the Trump administration, which had already blessed th...