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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022

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They're also called criminals. Not the same thing.

Aren't you a criminal only after you've been convincted of a crime ?

I'm fairly sure a lot of CIs are people who haven't been convicted, but perhaps only charged with something, and the charges were dropped or suspended in exchange for a promise of cooperation.

What kind of "evidence" do you imagine would fit this criteria?

Embezzlement, loss of expensive equipment, something criminal but not treasonous.

Except he now has a lawyer who will raise awkward questions about why he's being prosecuted now

And how far will the lawyer get, given how FBI and other government agencies operate, with everything secret ?

How lucky would the guy have to be to get a lawyer who wants to get on the Feds' naughty list ?

And the ex-fed is going to do this because...

Theoretically, because he'll get rewarded if he does it and punished if he doesn't.

And more likely, the ex-FBI people acting on FBI's behalf just do it out of their own sincerely held convictions about what's right.

Aren't you a criminal only after you've been convincted of a crime ?

In your hypothetical, they are doing this to agents who've been caught committing a crime but not prosecuted. First of all, how many of those do you think they are? Second, again, nothing you have conjectured actually matches the legal reality in the United States. Feds accused of crimes do get lawyers, and their lawyers aren't helpless against the all-powerful FBI or NSA or DIA or CIA that simply makes all evidence disappear or extorts the lawyer.

You are simply making up just-so stories.

You are simply making up just-so stories.

Pardon me for being suspicious given all that very shady stuff that has happened over the years and which Feds are implicated in.