For those that forgot this story, about a year ago, Teresa Burchfield, then the wife of King & Spalding’s Bobby Burchfield, was pinched — by the cops I mean but… whatever — in the back seat of her Maserati with a guy from the county lockup. According to court documents from the inmate, 23-year-old Garrett Portela, Madame Burchfield would bring him cigarettes and then she’d bang him in the back of the car. A bold feat, because Maseratis aren’t known for roominess.

Yesterday, she pleaded no contest and will pay a $2500 fine.

Her now-ex-husband Bobby Burchfield — hard to say how these two drifted apart — is a known quantity in right-wing legal circles, having served as counsel to George W. Bush in the Florida recount debacle and was appointed independent ethics advisor to Trump’s trust. In the latter role, he was charged with making sure Trump isn’t profiting off his office so… he’s doing a bang up job.

In a world where the White House is treating the American flag as a yo-yo to satisfy Trump’s petty beef with the man who spent years getting tortured while the president pretended his feet hurt, a story about a Trump entity lawyer’s bizarre domestic situation may not register. Yet, it’s the metaphor that defines life in these United States in the Year of Our Trump 2018.

It begins with a prominent conservative professional. The definition of the elite, the establishment, the Swamp, if you will. It begins with this guy mortgaging his reputation to provide a fig leaf of ethical cover to what almost everyone — on both sides — recognizes as a dubiously legal side hustle only to sit by and watch as the partner he’s trusted cavorts with known criminals in the car that his efforts probably bought. And when it’s all said and done, the straying spouse pleads out of all the crimes and walks away with a fine that amounts to pocket change and the inmate who thought they would get something out of this deal returns to jail with nothing but a couple cigarettes and cougar scratches.

When this chapter of American history draws to a close, this is where the GOP will find itself. Staring at an empty house and broken reputations while Trump skips into the sunset having trashed the office they gifted him and the MAGA hats will go right back to living hardscrabble lives and wondering why they never got anything out of this deal but 5 or 6 fleeting moments of excitement as they served as blowup dolls for the old rich people on the other end.

The storybook of our nation isn’t always best written in the halls of power. Sometimes it’s laid out in the backseat of a sports car.

Wife of Trump Lawyer Found in Car With Inmate Fined $2,500 [NBC Washington]

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.