AP: White House held GOP election briefings

White House held GOP election briefings
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - The White House acknowledged Thursday it has conducted about 20 briefings recently for federal agency employees on the election prospects of Republican candidates — the sort of meetings that sparked an investigation into whether Bush aides engaged in illegal political activity.

An independent investigative unit, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, this week launched a probe into a presentation by Bush aide J. Scott Jennings to political appointees at the General Services Administration. At issue is whether the January session violated the federal Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activities with government resources or on government time.

The Office of Special Counsel, led by Scott Bloch, is in charge of enforcing the Hatch Act. At the same time, Bloch himself is being investigated by the Bush administration on separate matters, including his enforcement of the Hatch Act.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said briefings were held at other federal agencies besides the GSA, for a total of about 20 — most in 2006 and a couple in 2007. They were conducted by White House political director Sara Taylor or Jennings, her deputy. It had been known that other briefings had been held, but not how many.

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