FBI raids Special Counsel office
May 6th, 2008 by JOE WINDISH
Steve Benen quoting the Wall Street Journal:
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided the Office of Special Counsel here, seizing computers and documents belonging to the agency chief Scott Bloch and staff.
More than a dozen FBI agents served grand jury subpoenas shortly after 10 a.m., shutting down the agency’s computer network and searching its offices, as well as Mr. Bloch’s home. Employees said the searches appeared focused on alleged obstruction of justice by Mr. Bloch during the course of an 2006 inquiry into his conduct in office.
The independent agency, created by Congress in the wake of the Watergate scandal, is charged with protecting federal employees and deciding whether their complaints merit full-scale investigation — a first line of defense against fraud and mismanagement in government. It also enforces a ban on U.S. employees engaging in partisan political activity.
Bloch was a controversial Bush appointee from the start. NPR:
One of Bloch’s first official actions was to refuse to investigate any claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation. When the news of his refusal was leaked to the press, career employees in his office say, Bloch blamed them for the leak. He retaliated, the employees said, by creating a new field office in Detroit and forcing them either to accept assignments there or resign.
The Washington Blade has more on his anti-gay record:
A high-level gay employee at the U.S. Office of Special Council was among seven OSC employees that received termination notices in 2005 after refusing to be transferred to distant cities in a staff shakeup that critics called a purge of employees considered disloyal to Bloch.
A second gay employee resigned to take a job outside OSC rather than accept the transfer ordered by Bloch, according to sources familiar with OSC.
Sources familiar with the agency said Bloch targeted a total of 12 employees — including the only two known gay staffers — for involuntary transfers, in part, because they disagreed with his decision to curtail OSC’s role in investigating and adjudicating complaints of employment discrimination against gay federal workers.
NPR’s sources say a grand jury in Washington issued subpoenas for several OSC employees, including Bloch, and that his home was also searched:
In addition to concerns about obstruction of justice, investigators are also looking into whether Bloch violated the Hatch Act, a congressional mandate that prohibits employees from using their offices for partisan political purposes.
Bloch has admitted to hiring Geeks on Call — a computer servicing company — to purge his computer and two of his deputies’ computers, sources said. But he said the computers contained a virus, which necessitated a purge. Investigators are looking into whether the purge was meant to destroy evidence related to the current investigation.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Justice, FBI, GLBT Issues. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
