Pundits want to know how high up did this go. “OMG, was Obama aware of this?”
I want to know how far down it went. How deep IS the corruption?
The corruption goes as far down as anyone who is on the government payroll and the thought of "smaller government" sends them into a panic. Smaller government means either smaller paycheck or a non-government job doing actual work. Watch who screams when the conversation turns to offloading to the private sector certain government tasks. There's your deep state for ya! Government has become its own constituency.