FBI seizes Office of Special Counsel computers

FBI agents on Tuesday raided the office of Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel, in connection with an inquiry into potential obstruction of justice involving files that Bloch hired a company to erase from his computer.

National Public Radio reported that agents also searched Bloch's home and an OSC field office in Dallas, and that a grand jury had issued subpoenas to several OSC employees.

According to news reports, the FBI seized several computers, including Bloch's, from the OSC offices.

The FBI declined to comment on the raid.

Bloch has been the subject of a long-running investigation by the inspector general at the Office of Personnel Management into complaints filed by OSC employees that he retaliated against whistleblowers who opposed his policies.

The OSC employees claimed that Bloch retaliated against employees who complained about office policies, issued an illegal gag order, abused his hiring authority, discriminated against homosexuals, and forced senior career staff to relocate from OSC's Washington headquarters to a new regional office in Detroit.

Last November, the Wall Street Journal reported that in December 2006, Bloch had used OSC funds to pay Geeks on Call, a computer assistance company, to wipe clean the hard drives of his computer and those of two former aides.

Bloch said he hired the company because he thought his computer had a virus.

Bloch has gained notoriety by conducting a high-profile investigation into potential violations of the Hatch Act, which restricts the political activities of federal employees, by White House officials and Bush administration appointees. These included Lurita Doan, who was recently forced to retire as head of the General Services Administration.

In May 2007, Bloch concluded that Doan had violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government workers from engaging in political activity on the job. OSC's investigation was launched in response to a presentation at GSA headquarters by Scott Jennings, a deputy of Karl Rove, President Bush's former chief political strategist.

Bloch wrote that Doan violated the Hatch Act by encouraging "her subordinates to engage in the type of political brainstorming session that is prohibited from occurring while the political appointees are on duty or in a federal workplace."

Bloch urged President Bush to discipline Doan "to the fullest extent."

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday asked the committee's chairman, Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., to reopen an earlier investigation of Bloch.

"You have shown intense interest in the White House's possible use of government resources for non-official purposes and the use of personal e-mail accounts for official business," Davis wrote. "I urge you to take a similar interest in the same possible conduct by Special Counsel Bloch."