Bush's head of the Office of Special Counsel at the Department of Justice, Scott Bloch, has had his offices and home raided by the FBI. The FBI raided his offices in D.C. yesterday, seizing computers and shutting off email. Bloch himself was interviewed. It's not clear exactly what prompted the raid, but Bloch has long been under fire for refusing to investigate claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation. There are also allegations that he has retaliated against employees and obstructed investigations.
Bloch also has a tie to the Sternberg case, the crown jewel of "Expelled," in that one of his like-minded appointees, James McVay, a man with no previous experience in employment law, whistleblower law, or federal sector work, took on the Sternberg case and wrote a preliminary report on it despite having no jurisdiction. His preliminary report managed to draw conclusions in contradiction to the actual evidence.
UPDATE: The New York Times also covers the story.
UPDATE (October 27, 2008): Scott Bloch has been fired.
UPDATE (March 30, 2011): Scott Bloch has been sentenced to a month in jail for destroying evidence on his computer.
I was listening to this news on NPR yesterday - and I was a bit distracted because I was ordering food from a drive through - but I think I recall that Block hired a computer tech to scrub his computer files, claiming that he was simply getting rid of a virus.
ReplyDeleteHave I just not been paying attention during previous administrations, or is this an alarmingly absurd number of scandals that this administration has racked up?
D'oh! That's what I get for commenting before clicking the links.
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