The Palm Beach Post reports that John Gillies, FBI official with 22 years of experience, gave a spirited talk to the West Boca Chamber of Commerce:

Gillies regaled about 70 attendees with tales of his work investigating politicians, judges and attorneys in prior FBI postings across the country. These FBI targets all displayed an unhealthy thirst for money, power and greed, he said.
…
Gillies said transgressors are adept at rationalizing their untrustworthy behavior. He gave examples of the types of excuses that FBI agents typically hear: “I’m not hurting anybody.” Or “I deserve this.” And especially: “Everybody does it.”

But rationalization isn’t OK, Gillies said, whether it’s coming from an elected official, [or] an attorney.

Do these rationalizations sound familiar to citizens in Massachusetts? To this day, for instance, indicted former House Speaker Sal diMasi — even after resigning under a growing corruption cloud — continues to claim he’s always acted in the best interests of the Commonwealth, and apparently without ever addressing the damning evidence before him pinning him to a kickback scheme involving tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money.