Going by what we know from the most recent news, anyone with a Pulitzer is most likely also a sex criminal.
Not saying this has been done, but it always struck me that CP planting would be an incredibly easy and effective way to basically end someone’s professional and political lives forever.
It’s one of the rare strict liability offences where there is zero need to prove intent, or even consumption. Possession alone is sufficient for conviction.
The offence itself is also so morally repugnant that no normal person would given anyone accused of such a crime any chance to explain themselves. To the police investigating, ‘I didn’t do it’ ‘those files aren’t mine’ etc have got to be the most common excuses they hear that they are minded to dismiss the pleas out of hand. And even if by some miracle they do investigate it properly, the amount of resources needed to prove planting, especially if done by a state actor, will be far beyond what a normal law enforcement investigation could possible have. At most they will run a scan with a standard law enforcement level diagnostic software, which most half decent hackers should be able to easily hide their tracks from.
Maybe I should send a suggestion to Russian intelligence. This will be far more cost effective and easier way for them to deal with overseas dissidents rather than assassinations. But then again, for state level assets that most of these dissents will be will probably be able to get western intelligence to look into the charges, so that would be a much higher bar to cross in terms of technical skill and sophistication of the planter. If western intelligence don’t just delete the charges altogether.