White House Special Counsel Scott Bloch Defends Himself in Wall St. Journal

[L. Coyote]

The Scott Bloch compilation thread just got locked, way too soon for this ongoing story. Here is the initial thread:

Scott Bloch, WH Special Counsel Says He Won't Provide Files to WH OPM. Showdown time!
Nov-30-07 http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2378221

The WSJ article Bloch responds to is:

Head of Rove Inquiry in Hot Seat Himself
Bloch Used Private Company, Geeks on Call, to Delete Files On His Office Computer
By JOHN R. WILKE - Nove28, 2007; Page A6
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119621772122306160.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us

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Special Counsel Scott Bloch Defends Himself
December 5, 2007; Page A23
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119682194191813957.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Your article "Head of Rove Inquiry in Hot Seat Himself" (Politics & Economics, Nov. 28) proves that, in Washington, you're innocent until investigated. The story skipped over conflicts of interest in the administration's investigation of me, to irrelevant allegations about my office computer.

The director and inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have conflicts of interest making impartiality unlikely in their investigation. OPM helped craft my predecessor's illegal policy on sexual-orientation discrimination, a policy I rescinded -- the core of the complaint they are investigating (their contrary policy is still on their Web site). If the inspector general affirmed the legality of my action, he would face conflict with his supervisor, the OPM director, who has a stake in this matter. The inspector general is thus an interested party in a matter he is investigating. Moreover, if I find it necessary to appeal in federal court, the OPM director must approve, so an interested party could block my appeal. The White House is aware of these conflicts.

The article didn't report that the computer files were only from the internal hard drive of my laptop and didn't include the official work files and email, which are stored on network hard drives. After the hard drive crashed, I wanted to protect my personal files, which included personal and medical information, privileged communications with my personal attorney, my son's pictures from Iraq, Christmas lists, etc. They were moved to a flash drive, and the hard drive cleaned to remove any trace of a virus. None of this is relevant to the investigation, nor has the inspector general of OPM informed me of any such allegations.

The Office of Special Counsel safeguards disclosures of whistleblowers, protects rights of federal employees on military active duty, enforces federal personnel practice laws and enforces the Hatch Act to protect the election process from government influence.