Way back in April, the Office of Special Counsel 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 in which Rove’s office politicized various federal agencies. “We will take the evidence where it leads us,” Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel and a presidential appointee, told reporters. “We will not leave any stone unturned.”
At the time, it seemed like encouraging news. After all, the OSC has a lot of tools at its disposal, including subpoena power. Paul Light, a New York University expert on the executive branch, said of Bloch’s probe, “This is a big deal. It is a significant moment for the administration and Karl Rove.”
Well, it should have been, anyway. It’s more than a little discouraging that the investigator is himself under investigation, and the Special Counsel looking into a potential cover-up appears to have 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.
It’s actually a funny story. 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.
Wait, it gets funnier.
Bloch comes under investigation for possible obstruction while … wait for it … already under investigation for additional alleged wrongdoing.
The senior government official who says he is investigating Karl Rove for allegations he influenced government activity for partisan purposes is himself facing allegations of similar behavior. […]
In April 2005, [government watchdogs] and others complained the White House appointee had allowed his office to “sit on” a complaint that then-White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice used government funds to travel in support of President Bush’s re-election bid.
By contrast, they said, Bloch ordered an immediate on-site investigation of a complaint that Bush’s challenger for the White House, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., improperly campaigned in a government workplace, which had been filed around the same time…. In January, his office said Kerry did not violate the act. It has made no statement on the Rice complaint. Bloch’s office has called the allegation “old and previously addressed.”
In late 2005, the White House-run President’s Committee on Integrity and Efficiency opened an investigation into that charge and several others, including accusations that Bloch’s office retaliated against employees who took issue with internal policies and discriminated against employees who were gay or members of religious minorities.
But what about career officials at the OSC? Maybe they can ensure a legitimate investigation of the Bush White House? Maybe, except when Bloch took over the office, he and his deputies forced out or transferred many of the OSC’s top officials.
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.
Remember, these are the guys who were going to restore “honor and dignity” to the executive branch. It’s almost comical, in hindsight.