Federal grand jury in special Iraq IG probe hears more witnesses
Investigation remains focused on allegations that Stuart Bowen and his deputy illegally read staff's e-mails.
A federal investigation of Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, and his deputy has accelerated, with prosecutors recently questioning seven current and former employees of the office before a grand jury in Richmond, Va., according to sources.
They said witnesses include a former deputy inspector general and chief of staff, as well as a lower-level information technology specialist, all of whom appeared March 19. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia, which heads the investigation, and FBI officials assisting the inquiry declined to comment due to the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. But the investigation appears to remain focused on allegations that Bowen, a former White House lawyer who has served in his current post since 2004, and his deputy, Ginger Cruz, illegally read office e-mails of their staff.
Former employees pointed to the subpoenas sent to an employee who believes Bowen and Cruz improperly monitored e-mails and to the IT specialist, who allegedly helped them gain access to the e-mail accounts.
FBI agents have questioned former employees about allegations that Bowen misused agency funds for a book about Iraqi reconstruction and that Cruz signed off on an exaggerated estimate of savings generated by the agency that it submitted to OMB, according to former employees.
There also have been questions about whether Cruz improperly used agency funds to pay personal legal costs, the ex-employees said. Bowen and Cruz have denied wrongdoing, characterizing the investigation as driven by disgruntled former employees. As a temporary organization, the agency has exercised a level of authority to dismiss employees that exceeds that of most federal agencies, resulting in high employee turnover.
"To the best of our knowledge, the grand jury is continuing to focus on the lawfulness of reviews of SIGIR employee e-mails that were undertaken as part of a properly authorized internal investigation," Bowen said in a statement Tuesday. "Such reviews are expressly permitted by SIGIR's e-mail policies, of which all employees are given notice and training. No SIGIR employee has been identified as the target of this investigation. We continue to cooperate fully with all investigative requests and are confident that the e-mail reviews in question did not violate the law."
Bowen's attorney, Bradford Berenson, a former associate White House counsel now at Sidley Austin LLP, was unavailable for comment this week.
Defenders and critics of the office have said e-mails were reviewed last year to identify employees suspected of sharing allegations against Bowen and Cruz with other oversight agencies and the media. But former senior employees have said the monitoring to locate leaks began in 2005 and quickly became a more widespread effort to assess employee loyalty.
A former official said Bowen and Cruz at one point reviewed staff e-mail without knowledge of aides who objected but were later stopped by the Army, which under Defense Department rules must grant permission for such activity. SIGIR officials have said the agency does not need Army permission.