Lawyer of the Day: Scott Bloch
Yes, that would be the Honorable Scott J. Bloch of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. The independent federal agency he oversees, which investigates government wrongdoing, got raided by the FBI today.
Looks like Bloch may have been doing some wrongdoing himself — he’s under investigation for obstruction of justice. From the Wall Street Journal (subscription):
At the direction of the White House, the federal Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general is looking into claims that Mr. Bloch abused his investigative authority, improperly retaliated against employees or dismissed whistleblower cases without adequate examination.The computer erasures became part of that investigation and are one of the reasons behind today’s raid, employees said. Investigators were trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, the Journal article reported.
Bypassing his agency’s computer technicians, Mr. Bloch phoned 1-800-905-GEEKS, the mobile PC-help service. It dispatched a technician in one of its signature PT Cruiser wagons. In the Journal story, Mr. Bloch confirmed that he contacted Geeks on Call but said he was trying to eradicate a virus that had seized control of his computer. He said the erasures didn’t delete any files related to the inquiry.
Bloch’s mistake was calling Geeks on Call instead of 1-800-HELP-ME-DELETE-SECRET-FILES.
(Or maybe he should have tried Compu-Nerd, Mariah Carey’s preferred tech service.)
F.B.I. Raids Office of Special Counsel [New York Times]
Special Counsel’s Office Raided [Washington Post]
FBI Agents Raid Work, Home Of Special Counsel’s Bloch [Wall Street Journal]
Spotlight on the OSC’s Scott Bloch, No Stranger to Controversy [WSJ Law Blog]
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Comments
first,
so are any public officials still morally conscious and worth of our trust and admiration ?
seven children???
WTF
WTF?!? Only white heterosexual men do anything wrong in the legal community? Why does ATL single white men out for Lawyer of the Day?
As an Ave Maria Law School graduate, I hate to see such misfortune fall on one of the Bush administration's top gay bashers.
bushie is upset about improper retaliation against employees? i guess with an IQ of 54 it's easy for him to have forgotten about the us attorney scandal.
HRC to Guantanamo!!
I didn't realize you can get rejected from lateral link? Amazing. Do they have to actually reject you? Couldn't they just not respond. I haven't got rejected yet....but if I do, it will be worse than getting rejected from e-harmony.
This pic should have its own caption contest. I wonder if he had this "I'm feeling gassy, shouldn't have eaten the enchiladas" smirk when the agents walked in...
Is it just me, or has ATL kinda been awesome lately?
I used to work with this office and actually met Scott Bloch a few times over the course of my employment.
He never did strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed.
No way! A Bush appointee is a crooked jackass???? This can't be true!!!
In other breaking news, the earth is round.
Lat, you might want to mention that Bloch's oofice was being invetstigated at the direction of the white house; supposedly in retaliation for Bloch's investigation of Karl Rove's actions related to the AG's office. There is a history of Mukasey stonewalling Bloch's prior investigations and his fingerprints appear to be all over this raid. Nothing like a little intra-party fratricide:)