“There is NOTHING unusual about “conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government” charges!”
There is when there is no underlying crime being charged.
The charge boils down to deceiving a Federal Government employee, even if the reason for, the object of the deceit does not constitute a crime.
Any employee of any agency. Not just Law Enforcement.
And prosecuted as a Federal Crime.
I’d say it’s unprecedented in the history of the US.
No underlying crime? Every Mueller indictment I’ve seen starts with other charges and throws in the defraud as an afterthought.
In fed cases I’ve seen, sometimes a defendant pleads down to only the defraud charge, but that’s to avoid more complicated convictions.
(I used to do legal research)