> If all it takes for your movement to attempt to kidnap elected officials or disrupt transfer of power is a few undercover agents nudging along, your movement is a huge problem.
If it takes more agents then perpetrators to pull off your sting, and if the agents conceptualized, planned, financed, managed the operation, and participated in it…
Well, let’s just say I am going to be the wrong person to sit on your jury if you want a conviction.
They aren't strictly synonymous but, as you should know, in this context an "informant" is a kind of agent, both on paper and in practice. They aren't informants in a conventional understanding of the term, just feeding information back to the government. They receive training and are employed to proactively infiltrate and participate in criminal organizations much as any investigator would (or, in these cases, steer non-criminal organizations into criminality).
If it takes more agents then perpetrators to pull off your sting, and if the agents conceptualized, planned, financed, managed the operation, and participated in it…
Well, let’s just say I am going to be the wrong person to sit on your jury if you want a conviction.