Grand Jury Heard From OSC Staff.

Yesterday grand jury heard from Bloch's staff. FBI is looking into whether Bloch obstruction of justice. Also, pointing out, who would have the authority to tell Bloch to shut down the Siegelman investigation? Better yet, who told Bloch to shut down certain investigations? Siegelman said: "Why would you start an investigation and let it proceed and then shut it down? The logical conclusion is that somebody intervened and told them to shut down the investigation." Good question...

Grand Jury To Hear From Special Counsel Staff

Tue. May 13, 2008

A grand jury investigating possible obstruction of justice and perjury charges against Special Counsel Scott Bloch will hear testimony today from three agency employees, according to sources familiar with the case.

The testimony follows raids on Bloch's office and home last week by FBI and other agents. Investigators appear mostly focused on whether Bloch erased from his office computer information sought by the Office of Personnel

Management's Inspector General's office in its nearly three-year investigation into whether Bloch retaliated against agency employees who opposed his policies at the Office of Special Counsel, a small, independent agency that enforces federal workplace laws.

Bloch has said he hired a private computer firm to erase his laptop's hard drive after OSC information technology staff could not fix an apparent computer virus. He has denied erasing files sought by investigators.

Today's witnesses include two OSC IT workers, Wing Leung and Fai Chan, who could help corroborate Bloch's claims. Also scheduled to testify before the grand jury is Jim Byrne, who oversees an OSC team investigating whether briefings given by White House officials to political appointees at federal agencies led to violations of laws against using federal resources for partisan politics.

Also, there should be an investigation into Bloch committed nepotism and violated civil service rules:

Special Counsel Hired Son’s Boarding School Headmaster; Consultant Deal Worth $112,000 Produces Only a Four-Page Memo

WASHINGTON -- April 12, -- U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch, who is responsible for enforcing civil service rules, hired his son’s former Catholic boarding school headmaster as an expert consultant, in apparent violation of civil service rules, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In addition, Bloch gave the ex-headmaster a one-year appointment under which he would be entitled to receive as much as $111,966.40 but the only work produced was a four-page memo.

On March 16, 2004, Bloch hired Alan Hicks, a former headmaster of St. Gregory’s Academy, a Catholic boarding school, who left in the wake of allegations concerning priests sexually preying on young students, to serve as a consultant for a one-year period. Hicks was paid at an hourly rate of $53.83 for work not to exceed 2080 hours but Bloch has refused to divulge the total amount Hicks received.

See the pay scale and terms of Alan Hicks consultant appointment
http://www.peer.org/docs/osc/05_12_04_consultant_pay.pdf

View the redacted work product of Alan Hicks
http://www.peer.org/docs/osc/05_12_04_consultant_results.pdf


Bloch’s tenure

2003
— Scott Bloch appointed special counsel.

2004
— He overturns a policy put in place by his predecessor, Elaine Kaplan, that requires the Office of Special Counsel to investigate charges of discrimination based on an employee’s sexual orientation.
— He announces the opening of an OSC office in Detroit; several OSC employees quit, fearing they’re being reassigned to Detroit as retaliation for leaking information about the sexual orientation decision.
— OSC launches an investigation into alleged Hatch Act violations by then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

2005
— The Office of Personnel Management inspector general launches an investigation of Bloch in connection with the OSC whistleblowers’ charges of retaliation.

2006
— Bloch hires Geeks on Call to scrub his computer and, allegedly, the computers of two former deputies.

2007
— OSC launches investigation into possible Hatch Act violations by former General Services Administration head Lurita Doan, and presidential advisers Scott Jennings and Karl Rove.
— At a contentious hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Bloch denies charges that his office leaked to the media a draft OSC report that found Doan in violation of the Hatch Act.
— OSC launches investigation into whether the Justice Department violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act when it dismissed U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.

2008
— Bloch gives testimony about the Geeks on Call incident to investigative staff from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
— Computers and files from Bloch’s Washington office and Fairfax County, Va., home are seized in FBI raids.
— Watchdog groups accuse Bloch of investigating the White House to protect himself from political reprisals.