Investigators Suspect Bloch Of Lying To Congress In July

Wed. May 7, 2008


A federal criminal investigation into Special Counsel Scott Bloch appears to be focused not only on potential obstruction of justice charges against him but on the possibility he lied to Congress last year and manipulated agency investigations, according to sources. FBI agents and investigators from the Office of Personnel Management inspector general's office raided the Office of Special Counsel, an agency that enforces federal workplace laws, Tuesday, seizing documents and computers. They served subpoenas seeking testimony before a District of Columbia grand jury at dates in May and June, sources said. According to documents reviewed by CongressDaily, investigators are seeking evidence establishing whether Bloch destroyed evidence sought by the OPM IG in a nearly three-year investigation into allegations of agency employees who say Bloch retaliated against them for opposing policies he implemented after becoming special counsel in 2003.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Bloch in late 2006 used agency funds to pay a private computer company to erase files sought in the investigation from his office computer, a charge Bloch denies. But investigators have sought a range of other material, including files from OSC's high-profile investigation of General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan who was forced to resign last week by the White House. OSC found that Doan violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from using government resources for partisan politics.

Bloch drew fire over the Doan probe from House Republicans who accused him of approving a leak of a preliminary report on Doan to the Washington Post. In several letters to the White House urging Bloch's firing, Debra Katz, a lawyer representing former employees who allege retaliation by Bloch, charged that he approved the leak to maximize publicity because smaller-circulation news outlets were already reporting OSC's conclusions on Doan. Because the Post published a draft version of the report different from one shared with Doan, the disclosure appeared to come from OSC. At a July 12 House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce Subcommittee hearing on OSC's reauthorization, Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Tom Davis, in a sharp attack, asked if Bloch authorized the leak. Bloch said he did not. He asserted he did not know how the Post obtained the document.

People involved in case said the possibility of perjury is most likely the reason prosecutors sought material related to the Doan investigation. Katz, in an April 29 letter, accuses Bloch of lying about the transfer of agency employees in a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Management Subcommittee hearing on May 24, 2005. Sources said investigators have demanded material related to all congressional testimony Bloch has delivered as special counsel as well as documents related to OSC's investigation into allegations that Secretary of State Rice used federal resources to travel to campaign appearances supporting President Bush's re-election bid in 2004. Bloch's office closed the case, finding no violation by Rice. The request for Rice documents is likely aimed at evaluating whistleblower charges that Bloch improperly bypassed career investigators during the probe, people familiar with the case said. Bloch's lawyer, Roscoe Howard of D.C.-based Troutman Sanders LLP, did not return calls for comment.

by Dan Friedman