Why the university scandal is important
A lot of people are wondering why the administration is wasting time with this instead of going after the big names, and why even this has taken so long. I think this is why.
We all know that a large percentage of the population absolutely idolizes people like Trump and Clinton. If POTUS went directly after them, even if the trials and evidence were made public, many people would refuse to believe it. The cognitive dissonance just wouldn't allow it. They would believe that all of the evidence had been fabricated and that a mad dictator had decided to throw the constitution out the window and go after his political rivals. That's how you get riots.
So what do you do? You need to realize that the upper echelons of society are very interconnected. They use a lot of the same lawyers, accountants; they travel in the same circles; their kids go to school together. So you take the time to unravel that web of interconnections and find a way that a seemingly innocuous set of arrests can legitimately lead investigators out from them to others, then to others, then eventually to those at the top. All of the crimes along the way can be relatively small: bribes, tax irregularities… the sorts of thing that tend to happen in those circles all the time. All you need is something to justify your "hop" to the next node in the graph.
It's like when a rock hits your windshield when you're on the highway–it starts a small chip but over time cracks will spread across the entire windshield. As investigators uncover connections and crimes along the way, that entire papertrail of investigations and arrests will be seen by the public. Once you finally get to the people at the top, the public knows how you got there and they are far more likely to believe what is uncovered.
So all this time, the DOJ was probably finding all those connections and finding the ideal place to strike first that can lead them to those they really want to take down. This university scandal is just the tip of the iceberg.