[mindslight]

Criminal - someone who commits a crime, by breaking criminal law (as contrasted with civil law). Examples of criminal laws include prohibitions on inciting a riot or human trafficking.

Law enforcement agencies are certainly corrupt with their own incentives, but people with resources to hire many expensive lawyers are best able to protect their own rights. They're also best able to delay the legitimate workings of the system, which is why talk about "extended period of times" is irrelevant. It's called "due process", and we afford it to the accused even though it makes the process slower.

The point about the FBI unjustly persecuting people is not an argument that immediately indicts every action by the system - treating it as such is fundamentally nihilism. As awareness of valid institutional criticism spreads throughout society, it is also taken advantage of by bad faith actors to distract from their misdeeds. A similar dynamic is Russia using valid criticism of the US empire to cover for their own immediate imperial genocide. At best, the argument is an indication to be skeptical of the FBI's narrative and to insist on a high standard of proof - both things that an army of well paid lawyers and publicists are already handling.