Secret services are in the business of exactly doing illegal things on behalf of the state. I think there is pretty much nothing in the daily business of the CI

Secret services are in the business of exactly doing illegal things on behalf of the state. I think there is pretty much nothing in the daily business of the CIA or the NSA that wouldn’t land an ordinary citizen in jail. Whether it is to convince foreign officials to leak information, or bribe them, or plot a coup, or assassinate enemies of the state, or intercept some communications, etc. This is no different from any other secret service in the world. The NSA is no more guilty than a fox in the henhouse is guilty of being a fox.