THEORY: Cheatle was threatened by the FBI, hence why she kept deferring to them.
🚔 Crime & Democrats 💸
It was her only way to publicly state that they were the ones who orchestrated this.
Obviously she's still completely incompetent either way.
She doesn't need to be threatened. Her department was in on the plot. This is CYA and plausible deniability. Her story now can't conflict with the story the FBI declares as the gospel. This is classic government behavior.