I don't think that's even a little bit true. Consider CIA "black sites" where prisoners are brutally tortured at the government's behest, nominally legal because we have contractors in some other country conduct the torture rather than our own agents. Or, widespread warrantless surveillance of American citizens that the head of the intelligence community will brazenly lie about to Congress without consequences.

If the government doesn't particularly care about an issue, like did Page rape children, then it will abide by the law. If the government does care, then the law doesn't matter. The government might take some efforts to conceal their crimes, but they don't even try very hard to do that, because it doesn't matter when their wrongdoing is exposed.