When you have possible charges (serious charges at that) pending, and when you have people putting a bounty on your head, and broadcast networks slandering you, you better have attorneys.
At some point, sure. But in the middle of the firestorm, knowing that there are dozens of attorneys who would jump at the chance to represent should there be charges, and plenty of time to sue the broadcast networks, why do we expect an American citizen who did nothing wrong to do anything other than go about his life as a free person?