By Beth Daley

February 15, 2008

Two weeks ago, U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch accused the Department of Justice (DOJ) of blocking his supposed investigations into the U.S. attorney firings when DOJ’s Inspector General asked Bloch to defer his review until they had completed their own investigation. At the time, the dueling investigations argument didn’t pass muster with Bloch’s office. But that same defense was good enough for Bloch to use in his own defense last week in a letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Ranking Member Tom Davis.

The Committee wants to question Bloch about his seven-level wipe of computers at his office. That may have been an effort to cover up wrongdoing or obstruct an investigation into Bloch himself, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Bloch has canceled scheduled interviews with the Committee twice.

According to Bloch’s letter last week:

This letter is in response to your letter of January 16, 2008 regarding the Committee’s request for a transcribed interview of me. I continue to have substantial concerns about the Committee’s request because any such interview may touch on a matter that remains under investigation by the Office of Personnel Management (”OPM”).

That sounds familiar. According to the Washington Post a few weeks back:

[DOJ Inspector General Glenn] Fine’s office generally does not comment on investigations, but Cynthia Schnedar, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, rejected Bloch’s letter as “both factually inaccurate and misleading.”

She added: “We agree with the Department of Justice that the more responsible course would be for Mr. Bloch to postpone his limited review–as OSC has stated that it has done in other instances–so that it does not interfere with the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility’s comprehensive joint investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings.”

James P. Mitchell, a spokesman for Bloch, challenged Fine’s office to explain the alleged inaccuracies in detail. “We have our jurisdiction,” he said. “We have always said we will not be interfering with this investigation.”

Looming in the background are questions as well about whether Bloch perjured himself when he testified before the Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia. Members of Congress questioned Mr. Bloch at the hearing about the circumstances surrounding the leak of an Office of Special Counsel report chastising GSA Administrator Lurita Doan. Sources say Bloch lied when he claimed he knew nothing about the leak of the report, and that he, in fact, may have directed that it be leaked in order to bask in the media spotlight.

Sources also raise questions about whether Bloch’s supposed investigation of the U.S. attorney firings at DOJ is even within OSC’s jurisdiction, whether he is being disingenuous in claiming to be actively investigating Karl Rove, or whether Bloch is simply using every last trick in the book, from seven level security wipes to phony high profile investigations, to save his own hide.

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2008/02/blochs-double-s.html

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 16th, 2008 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Equal Employment Opportunity, Government Accountability Project, Government Corruption, OSC, OSC Watch, Office of Personnel Management, PEER, Project on Government Oversight, Scott Bloch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.