As you may have seen by now, the FBI has executed a full blown raid on the office and home of Scott Bloch, the DOJ head of the Office of Special Counsel.
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.
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Mr. Bloch has been under investigation himself since 2005. 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.
You can read the original WSJ article here. The New York Times adds:
Mr. Bloch was in the news a year ago when his office began to look into political briefings given to employees of several agencies by aides to Karl Rove, who was then President Bush’s chief political adviser. The White House insisted at the time that the briefings met the definitions of allowable activities.
Mr. Bloch’s critics quickly accused him of announcing an inquiry into the Rove-inspired briefings simply to draw attention away from his own shortcomings. At the time, he was the target of a complaint filed by a group of employees who accused him of trying to dismantle his own agency, of illegally barring employees from talking to journalists and of reducing a backlog of whistle-blower complaints by simply discarding old cases.
The questions regarding this raid are just beginning, and the web of conflicts raised is absolutely endless. Here are some initial things to chew on and discuss as I delve further into the legality and propriety of this bizarre situration.
Is this Rove’s and Rachel Paulose’s attempt at revenge on Bloch for going after them? Asked by commenter Mogolori at Dkos.
Is Bloch a loyal Bushie who got pushed too far, and the Rove thing was just more than he could stomach, and he decided midstream to do the right thing? Asked offline by LHP. Decent question, but I don’t think it has my vote.
You don’t think this could distract our attention from the FISA subterfuge going on behind our backs do you?
Is the Bloch raid related to Lurita Doan firing? from Maryo2 in comments.
How the hell have they structured this investigation/prosecution as far as addressing conflicts of interest? How many ways from Sunday is this just fundamentally ethically troubling?
What, if any questions did the issuing court ask and have answered on the record before endorsing the warrants? If I had been the judge approached on this, my questions might take a week to answer there would be so many.
How much have they "sealed" in order to hide the ball on the public?