Contrary To Things I Understand

I’ve never understood why sometimes in a news story it will say that someone was charged with fraud, for example, and then add “contrary to the criminal code.” What is the point of those words? It’s fraud. It’s not legal. Of course it’s contrary to the criminal code. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be in there, would it? Saying contrary to the criminal code implies that there exists some sort of fraud which is totally cool according to the criminal code, doesn’t it? And aside from some of the stuff politicians, corporations and rich people get away with, I can’t say I’ve ever heard of that variety of fraud. So why do we say it, and why don’t we say it all the time if it’s important and not just wordiness for the sake of wordiness?

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