Sentence Correction

Ah - notice that, in what you typed, you didn't include the word "crime" - you were quoting a simpler idiom.

For instance, I could say, "The drops of water on your coat and hat make it plain that it is raining outside."

But that's now a different construction; I'm not using "crime" in that one.

You're trying to construct a general rule from something that is not a general rule. Idioms are specifically NOT general rules; they are very specific rules for some particular circumstance.

"The new law makes it a crime to..."

"The new law makes it plain that..."

It's like saying:

I am capable of
I have the capability to

Here, I'm saying the same thing (in terms of meaning), but the two different constructions require different prepositions, and we're just supposed to have that memorized.

There are thousands and thousands of idioms in any language - you aren't going to memorize them all. Worry about the ones that have been shown to be tested on the official GMAT. Study the idioms from OG, GMATPrep, etc, and leave it at that!