FBI seizes Doan, Rice case files in raid of OSC chief's office

Source: GovExec.com

May 7, 2008 About 20 FBI agents and administrative investigators executed search warrants Tuesday on the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in a daylong raid that appeared at least partly focused on finding information on the office's high-profile investigations into alleged illegal political activity by Bush administration officials.

Arriving at the agency's M Street office in Washington before 11 a.m., the agents served grand jury subpoenas seeking testimony and records from 17 current and former agency employees before carrying out boxes of documents and computers around 5 p.m.

The raid was the latest step in the long investigation of Special Counsel Scott Bloch, who heads the independent office that enforces workplace laws at federal agencies. For more than 36 months, the Office of Personnel Management's inspector general has been probing allegations by former OSC employees who say Bloch retaliated against them for opposing his policies for handling discrimination charges based on sexual orientation.

Last year, the OPM IG's office began looking into Bloch's hiring of private computer technicians to remove files from his office computer and those of aides. The files had been sought by investigators, but Bloch has described the files as personal and not relevant to the probe.


Read more: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39961&dcn=todaysnews

---

Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the top Republican on the House panel, asked Democrats to subpoena Bloch for his sworn testimony and personal e-mails that could clarify what was destroyed. He suggested Bloch “misused his government computer for personal business.”

“The e-mails were essential in determining whether Mr. Bloch had used his computer for inappropriate purposes,” Davis wrote in a letter Tuesday to House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Tuesday's raids were done in connection to a criminal investigation of whether Bloch obstructed justice and, potentially, lied to Congress, according to the law enforcement officials.

more:http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080506-1547-specialcounsel.html


Looks like the repubs are all over this

:wow:

:woohoo:

I hope not.

Wonder why this makes me think that it will be announced at a later date that the "case files" contain NOTHING that would indicate ANY wrong doing by Rice and Dorn?

You're probably correct. :shucks:


I really miss my trust that someone somewhere is doing something because it's the honest thing... and
not a CYA for a group of corrupt *expletive deleted* who have politicized the United States to fit their
warped ideology.

The wheels of justice move slow, but the present day wheels have been almost at a standstill. I'm glad to see something moving on this. Doan was insulting in her testimony, and I can't have much sympathy for her.

Doan Speaks, Envisions Victory Dance
By Matthew Blake 05/05/2008 03:10PM
On Friday, The New York Times had a pithy assessment of ousted GSA Administrator Lurita Doan: "She exits as a minor but revealing character in a far more sweeping tale of the partisan undermining of public service."

Well, it's not like Lurita Doan to take such swipes lying down. Today she fired back on the airwaves of Federal News Radio, giving an interview that was over-the-top even by Doan's standards. The news from the interview is that White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Counsel Fred Fielding told Doan she had to go, because she was a "distraction." Here are some other highlights:

-On the New York Times: "I think Thomas Jefferson said it right. He said the most accurate thing in the newspapers are the advertisements." Doan says The Times is advancing the "seductive theory" that Doan was fired for violating the Hatch Act. The real reason, Doan says, (and this might be true) is her endless feud with GSA Inspector General Brian Miller.

- On the White House demanding her resignation: Doan describes it as "bizarre" and "absolutely surreal" meeting with White House officials who called her a "distraction to progress at GSA."


more:http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/doan-speaks

link to interview:
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?nid=169&sid=1397223

oh this is gonna be good!

I hope something comes of this.

Has Congress been notified of this wondrous document and its power?

Elana Schor in Washington guardian.co.uk, Wednesday May 7 2008 Article historyAbout this articleClose This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday May 07 2008. It was last updated at 16:13 on May 07 2008.Republicans in Congress today called for a subpoena to force testimony from Scott Bloch, the US special counsel whose mission is helping government whistleblowers, after law enforcement agents carried out a daylong raid on his home and office.

The FBI is probing whether Bloch, who leads the office of the special counsel (OSC), destroyed evidence relevant to a White House misconduct inquiry against him. He has been caught in a bind for a year, investigating the Bush administration for misuse of government resources while the White House was investigating him.

Republican congressman Tom Davis today urged that Bloch be forced to answer questions he has long avoided about using taxpayer money to erase his government computer.

"Democrats weren't all that crazy about Scott Bloch … but when he trained his sights on the Bush administration, they were all too willing to let him slide," Davis said in a statement.

more:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/07/usa

I haven't seen MAD in a while.) Anyhoo, I'm reminded of it, when contemplating Bush White House "investigating"...Bush White House appointees who are "investigating"...Bush White House agencies who are "investigating"....

We, the people, are reduced to reading entrails, in trying to figure out what the fuck is going on in our government. But back up a bit and figure this: The Bush White House deliberately appoints very corrupt people, crazy people, completely incompetent people and other wretched types, whom they keep tabs on with massive spying, and control with dirt, bribes, kneecappings and black ops (when necessary). Our government is riddled with Bushbot subordinates who are controlled, mafia-style, by these tactics, and also by pitting one against another. Any of them can be dumped on at any time to provide distraction and cover up for the awesome crimes being committed at the top of the food chain.

Caveat: Get skilled at reading between the lines. And bring a large, LARGE dose of skepticism to anything you read/hear/see in our war profiteering corporate news monopoly press.

As for this OSC thing, I don't have a clue as yet. It looks like "Spy vs. Spy" to me--a pointless endeavor of "gotcha" in which the operatives themselves can't remember what their purpose is, except not to be "gotch-ed."

russians didn't believe their media & were skilled in reading between the lines to figure out what was going on. I've thought of that many times over the last 8 years as I find myself doing the same.

POGO; Internal Draft Document Reveals Bloch-Headedness
Internal Draft Document Reveals Bloch-Headedness
POGO has gained access to an extraordinary internal document from the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency charged with protecting whistleblowers from reprisal. Clearly marked "DRAFT," it is a memo dated January 18, 2008, to Special Counsel Scott Bloch from the members of a special task force. The task force was created, according to the memo, in May 2007, "to pursue certain complex and high profile investigations, such as the firing of the U.S. Attorneys and the political presentations given by the White House Office of Political Affairs (OPA)." The stated subject of the memo is "Summary of Task Force Activities and Recommendations," but it reads at times like an anguished cry from investigators charged with an important mission but virtually every recommendation they make is countermanded by their boss. If they recommend going forward with an inquiry, Bloch says no. If they say they lack evidence or jurisdiction, he orders them to go forward.

The inescapable conclusion reached from poring through the contents of this 13-page memo is that Bloch was deliberately creating the impression of a huge ongoing multi-faceted investigation of the White House--at the same time that he himself was being investigated by another arm of the White House for various forms of misconduct.

Here is my analysis, along with some juicy quotes.

Office of Political Affairs:
The task force (TF) began to examine allegations that 25 federal agencies had received political briefings from the White House Office of Political Affairs that may have violated Hatch Act bans against the use of government resources to promote or oppose a political party or candidate. The task force received hundreds of documents from the agencies and thousands from the White House about the briefings. But as the investigators proceeded in their classic methodical way, they received new directions from their boss: transfer a Hatch Act complaint against Commerce Secretary Gutierrez from the Hatch Act Unit to the task force); merge two complaints against Karl Rove into the ongoing OPA investigation; draft new requests for information to the White House demanding copies of all email sent or received by 50 OPA employees from January 2001 through November 2007, from both the employees' government accounts and their RNC accounts.

The first cry of anguish followed: "TF expressed concerns that this request is too broad and may exceed OSC's jurisdiction" (emphasis in original).

But there was more. The Special Counsel demanded that the TF seek even more records from the White House: all travel records on Air Force One; all procedures for telephone and fax machines; all grant awards, etc. Again the protest from the task force: "After reviewing all documentation received and finding no information or evidence to suggest that agencies directed grants or agency resources to help candidates or political parties TF believes this request is overly broad."


much more:
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2008/05/internal-draft.html

White House forces resignation of embattled GSA chief

By Dan Friedman and Robert Brodsky April 30, 2008
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39888&dcn=todays_most_popular

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the ranking member of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Wednesday, "It would be a shame if had anything to do with the hyperbolic and unfounded allegations of Scott Bloch and others who were after her just to claim another administration scalp. There's no doubt personality conflicts played a role. Certainly, her management style was not everyone's cup of tea. But the administrator appears to have fallen victim to a bureaucratic culture that fears, rather than rewards, entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and bold leadership."

Doan faced heavy criticism last year from congressional Democrats. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., grilled Doan at two hearings over the Hatch Act violation and regarding allegations that she improperly intervened to assist a federal contactor, Sun Microsystems, in its negotiations with GSA and over charges that she unsuccessfully attempted to steer a small no-bid contract to a longtime friend.

This is getting very interesting indeed, though it's still hard to tell how it will all fall out.

Davis Calls On Bloch To Resign
By Ryan Grim

May 7, 2008
(The Politico) Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called on Special Counsel Scott Bloch to resign his post.

Bloch's office was raided yesterday by federal law enforcement officials who seized records and computers. Davis also asked Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), to subpoena Bloch for a sworn deposition to ask him why he brought in a non-government computer service company - Geeks on Call - to perform an extensive wipe on his government computer. All things being equal though, Davis would prefer he simply resign instead, he said.

"The White House asked Lurita Doan to step down as head of the General Services Administration because, they said, she had become a distraction," Davis said. "In light of the various investigations into Mr. Bloch's conduct, including the FBI probe revealed yesterday, it's hard to believe he can continue to operate effectively. It's time the OSC put this turbulent period behind it and return to the important work of protecting federal whistleblowers."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/07/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4078765.shtml

or if they're turning on each other.



Bloch has a long history of obstruction and obfuscation and seems to have been put in place to subvert the OSC's purpose.

Davis is a former RNCC chair and has been connected to Abramoff. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/18/9326/88924/55/347761
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/19/24856/087

Doan politicized GAO. http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Waxman_requests_documents_from_Rove_regarding_0329.html

And what they've done to the DOJ - :grr:

I just hope Waxman can sort through the mess and get to the substance of it.

Subject: agree and the timing of the email explanation and how it relates to rove is interesting
Message:
White House tells court of missing emails from beginning of Iraq war

The White House has admitted in court that it has lost three months of email backups from the initial days of the Iraq war, raising questions about the possible deletion of politically sensitive records.

The disclosure came in a lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive, a non-profit group that specialises in uncovering classified documents.

The archive was told it could not receive emails relating to Iraq, despite a 30-year-old law requiring the preservation of presidential records, because a system upgrade had deleted up to 5m emails.

~snip~

The loss of White House emails also proved an obstacle to Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating the leaked identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Fitzgerald said in 2006 that he believed some potentially relevant emails sent by aides in vice president Dick Cheney's office were lost in the Bush administration's email system.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3255903&mesg_id=3256011

Hmmm, emails always have a sender and at least one recipient. Maybe this is part of tracking down and getting rid of possibly incriminating emails on the other end? Especially if that person and you knew you were about to cast them off and didn't want you to have emails to use to get back at them.

Another element that is interesting in this is the Rice one.
That's the newest item in the mix to me:
In addition, investigators demanded documents related to OSC's investigation into allegations that Secretary of State Rice used federal resources to travel to campaign appearances supporting President Bush's re-election in 2004. Bloch's office closed the case, finding no violation by Rice.

What do you make of that?

The only way to cover up a vast conspiracy is to feed some fresh red meat to the prosecutors/investigators/vengeful.

EOM.

When a Republican gets ahead of these crimes it is only to do damage control. See: Arlen Specter.