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FBI seizes computer files of controversial U.S. counsel

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

May 7, 2008

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WASHINGTON - Federal agents raided the office and home of U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch yesterday while investigating whether the nation's top protector of whistle-blowers destroyed evidence potentially showing he retaliated against his own staff.

Computers and documents were seized in the raid on Bloch's downtown office, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Bloch's home in Fairfax County, Va., also was raided, officials said.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko confirmed that agents with the FBI and White House Office of Personnel Management executed "a number of court auth- orized federal search warrants today."

The raids mark the latest twist in what critics describe as Bloch's bizarre tenure at the agency responsible for protecting federal workers and ensuring that whistle-blowers are not subjected to reprisals. He has been on the hot seat since he took office in 2004, in part for closing hundreds of whistle-blower cases allegedly without investigating them.

A group of current and former Office of Special Counsel workers filed a complaint in 2005, accusing Bloch of retaliating against those who opposed his policies through intimidation and involuntary transfers. They also accused him of refusing to protect workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation.

A year later, Bloch paid $1,149 in taxpayer money to have an outside tech company, Geeks on Call, scrub his government laptop, according to transcripts of an interview he gave House investigators.

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