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Investigator Wars
The Washington Post has an update to Special Counsel Scott Bloch's alleged scheme to have geeks scrub his hard drive (for background click here). Turns out that Bloch has the files that he erased on a thumb drive, but he's not turning them over, no sir: They're personal. And it's sparked a good bit of squabbling amongst the White House's ineffectual investigative agencies (in this case the other party is the Office of Personnel Management's inspector general).
But here's the part that's good. Earlier this year, Bloch launched, to great fanfare, a sprawling investigation of Karl Rove's alleged efforts to politicize the federal government, but it seems not to have gotten very far. But maybe, Bloch's enemies are saying, the investigation was just a canny ploy to incapacitate the investigations of him:
Attorneys representing the staff members in the complaints against Bloch cited the latest dispute in calling for his resignation."At the time that he initiated this probe of Karl Rove, we thought he was doing this to make himself bulletproof so the White House could not take disciplinary action against him," said Debra Katz, an attorney for the staff members. Bloch denied that charge and said the Rove investigation is the responsibility of his office.
Ah, oversight.
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Comments (25)
Al Capone went to jail for tax evasion, not murder and racketeering.
Many Bush appointees are guilty of much worse crimes, but I'd be quite happy to see a select few doing time in federal prison for destruction of federal records. I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that the penalties for this are not trivial. These actions may not be "war crimes" but they are clearly crimes against the Constitution.
November 30, 2007 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
These are work-related files, yes?
Why does he think they're personal?
Was part of his job description 'destroy all evidence on computer'?
Do we need to bring in the big lawyers to explain the difference between personal and work-related to this @#$%^&?
Does the WH even *have* anyone working for them that understands the difference?
November 30, 2007 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
more like,
ah, internecine war amongst the politburo.
November 30, 2007 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm....personal files, on a government-owned computer, that he wanted to hide with a seven-layer scrubbing.
I wonder what kind of pictures he's been looking at?
November 30, 2007 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Turns out that Bloch has the files that he erased on a thumb drive, but he's not turning them over, no sir: They're personal.
Can you say kiddie porn? I knew you could.
This was another stroke of Rovian genius: if you're going to politicize the executive branch, make sure you have the goods on the person that would be called upon to investigate said politicization. Cuts it right off at the kneecaps.
November 30, 2007 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, grown-ups.
November 30, 2007 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Bushy boy Scott Bloch wouldn't lie would he? We all know that lying will not be tolerated at the White House.
Nosiree.
November 30, 2007 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about if we just waterboard him until he gives up the thumb drive? Oh, wait: waterboarding is torture, and we don't do that.
Maybe we could place his thumbs—or, some other appropriate appendage—into a press and bear down until he gives it up…
On a more serious note: these 'personal' files would appear to be government 'work product' and he has no right to distribute, destroy or conceal them. Surely someone can apply appropriate administrative pressure to sideline him and snag the files.
November 30, 2007 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
At every company I've ever worked at I've been warned that any files on my work computer were company property.
One would think a similar rule (if not law) would apply for government service, especially in a legal government job.
November 30, 2007 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
See, this is why the administration has to get behind government funded hi-speed broadband across the country -- the telecoms be damned. If he had good network access at home, he could download the porn there instead of having to use the office T1 line.
It's almost entrapment.
November 30, 2007 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
The emails still exist on a server. A request for his server mailbox should yield all the messages he sent or received. If they are not in active storage the messages are on a backup tape. Further the receipients have them and they can be compelled to produce the documents.
FYI -- if this becomes a civil action in federal court a jury will be instructed to make an adverse inference regarding any deleted electronically stored information. Monetary scanctions are also regularly imposed on parties that destroy evidence of any kind.
November 30, 2007 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since when is it a good idea to make a backup of virus-infected files on removable media? If he uses the thumb drive on any other computers, won't they be infected as well?
Oh, I get it, the computer wasn't wiped clean because of a virus...
November 30, 2007 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Bloch dug up some dirt on Rove.
And maybe Rove intimidated Bloch into keeping quite. Bloch in an effort to protect himself transfered the dirt on Rove (or someone else?) to his thumb drive and had his hard drive scrubbed to so Rove could not find out what he has..
If Bloch is smart, he's got several copies of what ever is so important to hide...
Is there any reason to suspect that Bloch is this devious or clever?
Phil
November 30, 2007 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course the corporatists are the first ones to point out that *nothing* is personal on a work computer, or when using computers and the internet during work hours.
Once again, we see the republican value system at work: law and order, all the time--except for me.
November 30, 2007 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the OPM investigators had probable cause, then they would already have the thumb drive. They merely asked him to give them the thumb drive. Tell me how many people would gladly do that, knowing that the investigation was politically motivated. Politics is a dirty business, but this administration has misused law enforcement and intelligence personnel for its own devices in a manner not seen since Richard Nixon was in the White House. All of these scandals make it plainly obvious that we need to establish a permanent non-partisan Independent Counsel who can operate independently of the Attorney General.
November 30, 2007 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tick. Tock.
November 30, 2007 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gotta love these GOP hacks... they look like something that just fell off the turnip truck... Real Americans can only hope that the real president on 1/20/08 will insure the swift criminal prosecution of the Dubya criminals (I won't visit the SOB but I will show up for the moment when his neck swings in the noose)... in fact, these criminals should be denied all the rights that even poor African-American defendants have been grundgingly given by the racist judges appointed by the the GOP... think Clarence Thomas, think Tony Scalia...
November 30, 2007 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe we'll finally find out who Jeff Gannon was shtupping in the White House. And where he was on the giving or receiving, uh, end.
November 30, 2007 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Randall wrote on November 30, 2007 4:57 PM:
...Real Americans can only hope that the real president on 1/20/08 will insure the swift criminal prosecution of the Dubya criminals..."
Many wish it could be 1/20/2008, but unfortunately it will be yet another year before our constitution will find relief.
November 30, 2007 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would ask, if the files are personal as he claimed, why did he charge the government for their removal? Isn't that malfeasance?
November 30, 2007 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Goody, another sex scandal. Or? Could the networks cover this anytime soon? Nah.
November 30, 2007 11:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
This guy is obviously dirty. The guy didn't know how to erase his own hard drive, but at his level, I can't imagine he's completely stupid. In that he had to know that the DOJ backs up all e-mails sent through DOJ servers.
Hell, after Gonzo-gate, this guy would have to be living under a rock not to realize that the very same agency that had copies of all the Gonzo-gate e-mails has copies of his DOJ e-mails.
So I'm thinking it really might be something personal. Really, why get something wiped by an outside company? So you don't have to explain yourself to the in-house computer geeks.
Anyone who's worked in a large organization knows that when you want a computer wiped, the tech desk will typically dispatch someone to retrieve the computer. They take it back to the shop to diagnosed the problem or wipe the drive. Of course, IT geeks can be nosey. I'm thinking this guy didn't want the nosey DOJ IT geeks finding all his unseemly files.
My guess is that he was using his office machine to communicate with a girlfriend/boyfriend/mistress. Either that or porn, but porn would be Really stupid. So I'm guessing IM chats or e-mails over non DOJ e-mail servers.
Of course, getting his computer wiped by an outside firm totally backfired on him. Because now, not only are his DOJ emails going to be scrutinized, his personal files are going to be demanded. So if he WAS fixing the books to protect Rove et al, it will quickly be known to the Senate.
This guy was too clever by half. In trying to cover up some personal dalliance, he's focused a laser beam on his professional conduct. He deserves a GSA Darwin award.
December 1, 2007 1:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Reading the original story was like reading an article in The Onion.
As a government employee, the notion of bringing in an outside company on a one-time basis to do work on a computer that your own IT shop could do is more that absurd, it's at least border-line criminal.
December 1, 2007 7:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
So any tech, any tech can tell you a wipe, a simple reformat is all you need to start a drive fresh so it's virus free.
Clearly he turned to outside tech because he wanted to hide something, but with the death wish of all perps he announces he kept the files.
A logical explanation, would be he wanted "someone" to know via the public, that he kept the "important" files.
Is this blackmail, or merely insurance.
Going that degree of trouble of hiring traceable OUTSIDE TECHS and yet announcing that he kept the files, hmmm both secrecy and publicity - a cocktail that speaks quite loudly.
Solidarity & Peace
December 1, 2007 8:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Or maybe Blochs' investigation of Rove was exactly what I thought it was. A clever ploy to put a fox in charge of guarding the hen house. To basically put up a fasade of an investigation so no other investigation could get started or at least would be delayed long enough to allow the numbskull to get out of office.
December 3, 2007 3:13 AM | Reply | Permalink