[Blood of Tyrants]

may have “violated the law, perhaps committed crimes”

Your Honor, I may have violated the law, but I didn't commit a crime. Let's see if he/she buys that.

[Susquehanna Patriot]

It seems contradictory but it isn’t.

Consider search and seizure where an officer may have search a defendant when there was no probable cause and no consent. The officer “broke the law” by violating the defendant’s Constitutional rights but did not commit a crime. The penalty is that the evidence discovered in the illegal search would be inadmissible in the prosecution of the defendant.

So Joe D is being fair in that some people may have been performing certain acts, albeit wrongfully, in the discharge of their official duties. These would be separate from those done in the commission of a crime. Some of the criminals may have been committing their crimes under the pretext of discharging their official duties.