FBI Raids Office of Special Counsel

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 12:42 PM on May 6, 2008.

It’s been weeks since a corruption scandal humiliated the Bush administration, so I suppose we were overdue for news like this.

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.

This story has taken a few twists and turns, but it’s actually really interesting, and more than a little comical.

The Office of Special Counsel isn’t the most high-profile office in government, but it’s generally tasked with investigating whistleblower complaints. Bloch, however, has been ambitious — about a year ago, the OSC launched a broad investigation into Karl Rove’s political activities, with particular attention on the prosecutor purge, RNC emails, and fairly obvious Hatch Act violations (Rove’s office politicized various federal agencies). “We will take the evidence where it leads us,” Bloch said. “We will not leave any stone unturned.”

But while the investigator was investigating Rove, he was also facing his own investigation.

The Special Counsel looking into a potential cover-up appears to have been engaged in his own cover-up.

The head of the federal agency investigating Karl Rove’s White House political operation is facing allegations that he improperly deleted computer files during another probe, using a private computer-help company, Geeks on Call. […]

Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year. They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said.

Bloch claims that he contacted the private PC-help service — bypassing his own agency’s computer technicians — to deal with a virus that had control of his computer.

He apparently asked the technicians to do a “seven-level” wipe, which, as the WSJ reported, “makes it nearly impossible for forensics experts to restore the data later.” While Geeks on Call was there, he also directed the technicians to wipe laptops used by his two top political deputies.

Bloch used tax-dollars to pay for all of this, and the $1,149 receipt makes no mention of a virus. Jeff Phelps, who runs Washington’s Geeks on Call franchise, said it would be unusual to address a virus problem by wiping a hard-drive. “We don’t do a seven-level wipe for a virus,” he said.

Nothing suspicious here. No sirree.

This is, as David Corn put it a while back, “a dizzying situation.”

The investigator investigating officials who oversee the agency that is investigating the investigator. Forget firewalls. This looks more like a basement flooded with backed-up sewage — with the water rising.

I should note, by the way, that this probe was launched while Bloch was already under investigation for additional alleged wrongdoing.

Only with the Bush gang is this set of circumstances even possible — Bloch is ostensibly investigating the Justice Department for its political activities, and simultaneously the Justice Department sends the FBI to raid Bloch’s office and home. What’s more, everybody is probably guilty.

Thank goodness Bush was elected to restore honor and dignity to the executive branch of government.

Tagged as: fbi, corruption, office of special counsel