Chapter 190 Intricate Relationships

When the convoy returned to Oxford Town, it was already completely dark. Mu Xin went straight to the power company office and dialed Jack's number.

"Mr. Mu, calling me at this hour—did something happen in Cincinnati?" Jack asked.

"It did," Mu Xin said directly. "I met with someone from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Acton's office."

"The Senior Resident Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Cincinnati, an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District from the Department of Justice, and someone from Washington—they demanded that the Connolly Family case end here, to be classified as a state-level corruption case, with no federal jurisdiction involved."

"I saw the relevant reports on the news. The corruption case in the law enforcement system of southwestern Ohio has already been classified as state-level," Jack said.

"It's already state-level?" Mu Xin frowned.

"The press release didn't go out long ago. It came through the Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs channel. The wording is very clean; the Connolly surname didn't appear a single time in the entire piece."

Mu Xin was taken aback. The people on the other side weren't just pressuring him; they were operating simultaneously on the media front. It was absurdly fast.

"Jack, I need you to escalate this immediately," Mu Xin said. "If this case is suppressed at the state level, everyone associated with the Connolly Family at the federal level will escape unscathed."

"I cannot let them be that comfortable. Use every media channel at your disposal, whether traditional or new media, and push these two points."

"First, the Connolly Family has operated a contraband network in southwestern Ohio for thirty years. From Cincinnati down to the county towns, the distribution nodes are outrageously numerous."

"Second, shift the topic from contraband to institutional corruption. For thirty years, this family has kept so many people on their payroll within the local law enforcement system—why hasn't anyone investigated these things?"

"The goal is to get the entire United States discussing this matter. Under such pressure, the government won't dare to downplay or dismiss it. The heat on this case must be maintained—for as long as possible!"

Jack was silent for a moment, then spoke, "You've already reached an agreement with those people, so you can't break it yourself, but you want me to break it for you."

"Not me," Mu Xin said. "It's that local media in Ohio received leaks from someone inside the Cincinnati law enforcement department."

"You're just helping these leads find the right outlet. You're in Washington, with no direct connection to Ohio. It's legal and compliant."

Jack sighed, and then Mu Xin heard the sound of typing on a keyboard.

"Systemic law enforcement corruption in southwestern Ohio—I can give this angle directly to investigative reporters at three cable news networks."

"One of them previously covered the military budget audit for The Pentagon and has a very keen sense for how things work within the Department of Justice system."

"After the town water poisoning, the Connolly Family name disappeared from federal press releases. I can push that to a few independent media columns in Northern Virginia."

"In traditional media, I have two newspaper editors who can take the exclusive investigative angle directly. In new media, there are a few accounts that focus on political news. If the leaked content is solid enough, the heat won't die down within a week."

"You still need someone from a television station," Mu Xin said.

"I know who is suitable," Jack said. "I'll go see them tomorrow morning."

"Not tomorrow," Mu Xin said. "Now. Tonight."

"Now?! Don't you Chinese people ever sleep? Isn't it supposed to be the Koreans who don't sleep?" Jack said, feeling somewhat helpless.

"The heat on this matter is dissipating quickly. How long has it been since you saw the words 'water poisoning' on the trending topics?"

"Now that the other side has already put out the press release, if you sleep until tomorrow morning, their second wave of narrative framing will be locked in."

Jack was silent again, then the sound of the keyboard started up again. "I'm making calls now. Give me one hour."

...

An hour later, Mu Xin's phone rang. It was Cohen.

"I found him. Charles Whitman III, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice."

Cohen paused, letting the name settle in Mu Xin's mind.

"He is not a political appointee confirmed by the Senate, but several of the department heads under him are."

"He has worked at the Department of Justice for twenty-seven years and has served under four presidents. Three of them tried to transfer him out of the Criminal Division during their terms, and all three times he stayed."

"Even the president can't move him?! Are you kidding me?" Mu Xin's tone was full of disbelief.

"Because he is the architect of the Criminal Division's budget structure at the Department of Justice," Cohen explained.

"All criminal funding categories that the Department of Justice applies to Congress for annually, the allocation of funds for each United States Attorney's Office, and the approval of operating expenses for special task forces—all of it must go through his office."

"That 170 million you heard about earlier is just a very, very small part within his jurisdiction."

"So it's not that he's afraid of being exposed at the federal level," Mu Xin realized. "It's that the federal level needs him to be there."

"Correct. He has operated in this gray zone for nearly thirty years. If the Connolly Family case moves up, his position will be in danger."

"But this man's weakness is also very clear," Cohen continued. "He is not a political appointee; he has no political family and no connections in the Senate."

"His power comes entirely from his control over the budget system. In other words, his opponents don't need to win through personnel struggles; they just need to find a flaw in his budget logic."

"Additionally, his relationship with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is limited to the Cincinnati field office; he cannot control the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"Because the Federal Bureau of Investigation has its own budget approval channel, which runs parallel to the funding line of the Department of Justice's Criminal Division."

"Who is his direct superior in Washington?" Mu Xin asked.

"The Assistant Attorney General. The current one is Nina Rodriguez, a political appointee confirmed by the Senate. She has been in office for less than two years. Her relationship with Whitman—"

Cohen gathered his thoughts. "According to the conclusions of three internal audit reports I found, her level of understanding of the Criminal Division's budget structure is about knee-high to Whitman's."

"So Whitman has worked under her for two years, and she hasn't moved him," Mu Xin said.

"She can't move him, because the flow of money on the budget sheets is very complex; only Whitman knows those things," Cohen corrected.

Mu Xin's mind was a bit chaotic. Previously, Patrick had begged him in a humble tone not to touch the federal line, and subsequently, Whitman was using that same federal line to pressure him.

Both of their reasons were exactly the same: the protective umbrella cannot be touched.

"Whitman has worked at the Department of Justice for twenty-seven years and served under four presidents. None of the four presidents moved him, which means he is not alone."

"He is not relying on one person to support this system; he is relying on those who have vested interests in this budget sheet to help him hold it up."

"If you want to move him, it's equivalent to moving all of these people at the same time," Cohen warned Mu Xin.

"You've misunderstood," Mu Xin said. "What I need to know now is whether every word Whitman said to me while sitting in Acton's office today was him cleaning up his own mess, or if he was cleaning up someone else's."

"If it's the former, his weakness is budget transparency. If it's the latter, he is not the hardest one to deal with."

Cohen was silent for a moment. "I'll continue investigating. Give me three days."

"Two days."

"Mr. Mu—"

"Cohen, they have already issued the press release today. Once they classify the Connolly case as a local corruption case that has already been completely eradicated, your defense industry security investigation and all the data I have in my hands combined will not be enough to meet the administrative threshold to restart a federal investigation."

"This isn't me rushing you; it's time rushing both of us," Mu Xin pointed directly to the root of the problem.