Scott Bloch

Scott J. Bloch
Born	New York City, New York
Education	University of Kansas School of Law
Spouse(s)	Catherine Bloch
Children	Seven children
Parents	Walter Black
Website
Official website

Scott Bloch (b. circa 1959) is an American attorney who was appointed by President George W. Bush to be deputy director to the Department of Justice's Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, as well as Special Counsel at the United States Office of Special Counsel. He is notable for ordering "seven level swipe" of all computers thus removing all emails and then lying to congress about it. This led to a guilty plea to criminal charges of contempt of Congress and a U. S. District Court conviction in 2013.^[1][2]

Bloch was born in New York City and grew up in Los Angeles, where his father, who used the name Walter Black, was a writer for a number of popular television shows. Bloch is also the grandson of American modernist artist Albert Bloch, about whom Bloch filmed a documentary in 2002.^[3]

Controversies

Removal of Sexual Orientation Non-discrimination

Bloch's first major action as head of the Office of Special Counsel, was to choose as deputy a lawyer who had publicly taken a position against the "homosexual agenda", and to hire young lawyers from the conservative Ave Maria School of Law.^[4] Part of the job of the OSC is to protect whisleblowers.

In February 2004, Bloch ordered all mention of sexual orientation workplace nondiscrimination be removed from OSC's website and printed materials, stating that his office lacked the authority to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.^[5] Bloch's critics argued that gay employees were protected by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which prohibits discrimination against federal employees "on the basis of conduct which does not adversely affect the performance of the employee." Since its enactment, all five prior presidential administrations (Ford, Carter, Reagan, H. W. Bush, and Clinton) had interpreted this law to protect homosexual employees.^[6]

After complaints from Congress,^[7] the Bush Administration released a statement in April 2004 saying homosexual employees were still protected.^[8] Bloch also issued a statement saying: "It is the policy of this administration that discrimination in the federal workforce on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited." ^[9]

This did not satisfy gay rights organizations, which claimed a lack of enforcement of the policy. The OSC has still not restored the language on its website or printed materials.^[10][11] The Federal GLOBE (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Employees of the Federal Government) then called for Bloch's resignation.^[12]

Bloch later retracted his statements and stated his office did not have the legal authority to protect employees from workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Alleged Refusal to investigate complaints

Media sources, Congress, and gay rights organizations continued to criticize Special Counsel Bloch and the OSC's lack of enforcement of its policies, particularly in regards to dismissing gay discrimination complaints.

For example, Michael Levine, a 65-year-old and openly gay radio technician, claimed that, after he blew the whistle on a coworker's and his supervisor's workplace misconduct, a personnel officer engaged in retaliatory action against him: pursuing knowingly false allegations of child pornography against Levine, suspending Levine for 14 days, seizing his computer, and referring to gay people as "those fucking faggots".^[13]

One year after filing both a retaliation and antigay discrimination complaint with the OSC, Levine received a letter from the OSC on December 28, 2004. Without interviewing even a single witness, the OSC wrote that it was unable to investigate the complaints because only conduct, not sexual orientation, was protected under the Civil Service Act of 1978^[13]—a reversal of Bloch's April 8, 2004 statement that sexual orientation-based discrimination was prohibited due to imputed conduct and therefore that the OSC has the authority to pursue such complaints.^[9]

After being embroiled in a related "internal purge" controversy (see below), Special Counsel Bloch testified before a Senate panel on May 24, 2005 and reiterated his original position that he lacked the authority to protect federal employees on the basis of sexual orientation.^[14] The next day, the Log Cabin Republicans called on Bloch to resign.^[15]

Bloch's defenders, including writers at the conservative magazine Human Events, argued that Bloch was being unfairly attacked.^[16]

Reorganization or Internal Purge

In January 2005, the controversy escalated when Bloch ordered twelve OSC staffers, including the only two known gay employees, to transfer to distant cities or lose their jobs.^[17] Bloch was accused of conducting a political purge of OSC employees by three government watchdog groups (the Government Accountability Project, the Project on Government Oversight, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), two federal trade unions (the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union), an LGBT rights organization (the Human Rights Campaign), and the OSC employees themselves.^[18]

The Washington Blade reported that, according to unnamed sources "familiar with the agency", the employees had been targeted partly because of their disagreement with diminishing the jurisdiction of the OSC in prosecuting antigay workplace discrimination.^[19] Both of the gay staffers had been critical of reducing OSC's role. Another of the twelve employees had reached a favorable settlement on behalf of a gay federal employee who filed a discrimination complaint against his supervisor.^[17] In the end, ten of the twelve employees resigned.^[20] Meanwhile, according to complaints, at least one staffer who had been supportive of Bloch's interpretation was promoted.^[6]

In October 2005, the US Office of Personnel Management ordered an investigation of claims that Special Counsel Bloch retaliated against employees who disagreed with his policies. Ironically, the OSC would ordinarily oversee such whistleblower disputes. The probe is also investigating whether Bloch showed an antigay bias in refusing certain whistleblower and discrimination claims.^[6]

In February 2007, Bloch was again accused of unfair supervisor practices when several of his staffers complained they felt coerced into not cooperating with the OPM probe. Bloch's deputy issued a memo urging OSC employees to only meet with probe investigaters in a certain conference room and to report their interactions to their supervisors. Employees reported other attempts to obstruct the investigation including "suggestions that all witnesses interviewed ... provide Bloch with affidavits describing what they had been asked and how they responded."^[21]

Alleged improper deletion of emails on office computers

Scott Bloch was under investigation for the alleged improper deletion of emails on office computers.^[22]

It is alleged that Scott Bloch erased the files on his office personal computer in 2007, and that the FBI tried to determine whether the emails were deleted improperly. The inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management examined the case at the urging of the White House. The Wall Street Journal reported in November 2007 that Bloch called the tech support service Geeks on Call for help deleting computer files instead of using his agency's own in-house computer technicians. Bloch confirmed that he contacted Geeks on Call, but insisted that it was to remove a computer virus.

FBI raid

On May 6, 2008, FBI agents raided Bloch's offices. NPR and the Wall Street Journal reported that the raids were in relation to an investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice by Bloch's office.^[23] The New York Times reported that the investigation concerned whether Bloch had hired an outside company to "scrub" computer files to prevent an inquiry into whether he had violated the Hatch Act by mixing politics with his job, which is to shield whistleblowers.^[24]

As part of an investigation into destruction of evidence, Bloch's person was searched and two portable memory devices were recovered.^[25]

On October 20, 2008, Bloch announced his intention to resign from his position as Special Counsel at the OSC on January 5, 2009. But his employment ended abruptly on October 23, during a meeting with White House officials. He was subsequently barred from entry to his office by the United States Federal Protective Service, which handles security at federal facilities.^[26]

Criminal conviction

On April 27, 2010 Bloch pled guilty to criminal contempt of Congress for, according to the U.S. Attorney, "willfully and unlawfully withholding pertinent information from a House committee investigating his decision to have several government computers wiped ...."^[27] Bloch was originally slated to be sentenced on July 20, 2010. However, the sentencing was postponed after watchdog groups objected to a plea deal which would likely have seen Bloch get only probation. Contempt of Congress carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison. On February 2, Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson ruled that Bloch faced a mandatory sentence of at least one month in prison.^[28]

The misdemeanor contempt statute to which he pled, 2 USC § 192,^[29] concerns either failure to answer questions by investigating members of Congress, or failure to provide evidence requested by investigating members of Congress, or both, by someone who has been summoned as a witness by a Congressional investigative body. Bloch was not under oath during his Congressional testimony, which concerned the "level seven wipe" incident in the Office of Special Counsel referenced above. He was questioned by members of Congress for over two hours, a year and a half after the events occurred. Bloch testified without any reference to notes or documents of any kind; it is not clear whether such notes or documents were requested by Congress when Bloch was summoned to testify, or whether, conversely, he was prohibited from making reference to any documentation. The plea included an admission by Bloch that he did not fully cooperate with Congress in his testimony, regarding five specific questions and answers out of the greater number of questions which Congress asked and Bloch answered.^[30]

Bloch moved to withdraw this plea on the basis that it was obtained in violation of the Constitution and the federal rules governing pleas.^[31] The U.S. Attorney entered into negotiations for a different misdemeanor plea should Bloch's previous plea be vacated by the U.S. District Court, where the appeal was pending.^[32]

On June 24, 2013, U. S. District Judge Robert L. Wilkins sentenced Bloch to one day in jail and two years' probation, and also ordered him to pay a $5000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service.^[33]

References

External links

Background

• Official bio on OSC website OUT OF DATE AND INACTIVE LINK
• Transcript of Bloch's nomination hearing pdf
• "Bloch on Bloch", Lawrence Journal-World, April 7, 2002. Scott Bloch on his grandfather, Albert Bloch
• "Office of Special Counsel - the dark legacy", Red County, July 23, 2010.
• December 2013 Report

Federal complaint and investigation of Bloch

• "Letter to Fred Fielding", Katz, Marshall and Banks, October 9, 2007
• "Bush's Special Counsel Tied to Anti-Gay Groups", Washington Blade, March 19, 2004
• Complaint of Prohibited Personnel Practices Against Special Counsel Scott Bloch, from Project on Government Oversight website (filed March 3, 2005) Complaint Exhibits
• "Federal Whistleblower Office Faces Criticism", National Public Radio, March 9, 2005
• "OPM Investigator Launches Probe of Office of Special Counsel Chief", Govexec.com, October 19, 2005
• "Office of Special Counsel's War On Whistleblowers", Mother Jones, April 24, 2007

Other criticism and Bloch's response

• "A Published Dress Code is Dressed Down in Furor", Washington Post, September 7, 2006
• "Special Counsel Cancels Award Ceremony for Whistle-Blower", Washington Post, September 11, 2006
• "Protecting Whistle-Blowers and the Public", op-ed by Scott Bloch in Washington Post, September 23, 2006

written in response to the Post's September 11, 2006 article

• "Report Shows Little Progress Reducing Case Backlog at OSC", Govexec.com, November 9, 2006
• Scott Blochs Sad Saga

Alberto Gonzalez investigation

• "GSA Briefing Now Part of Wider Investigation", Washington Post, April 24, 2007
• "Task Force to Examine Alleged Improper Politicking", Washington Post, April 25, 2007
• "Agency Watching the Agencies Walks Fine Line on Conflict-of-Interest Issues", The Hill, April 26, 2007
• "Karl Rove's Least Likely Interrogator: Scott Bloch and the Office of Special Counsel", Mother Jones (April 25, 2007)