F.B.I. Raids Office of Special Counsel - New York Times

F.B.I. Raids Office of Special Counsel — New York Times:

The office of the offi­cial respon­si­ble for pro­tect­ing fed­eral work­ers from polit­i­cal inter­fer­ence was raided by F.B.I. agents on Tuesday as part of an inves­ti­ga­tion into whether he him­self mixed pol­i­tics with offi­cial business.

The raid took place at the office of Scott J. Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel. Computers and doc­u­ments were seized by agents try­ing to deter­mine whether Mr. Bloch obstructed jus­tice by hir­ing an out­side com­pany to “scrub” his com­puter files, the Associated Press reported. Investigators also searched Mr. Bloch’s home in sub­ur­ban Virginia after obtain­ing a subpoena.

The White House “Office of Special Counsel” is sup­posed to inves­ti­gate direct polit­i­cal influ­ence in gov­ern­ment activ­i­ties, some­thing made ille­gal by the Hatch Act. It seems these raids were specif­i­cally ini­ti­ated by sus­pi­cion that Mr. Bloch “mixed pol­i­tics with offi­cial busi­ness,” and then tried to cover it up.

I sup­pose it’s good that one part of the exec­u­tive (the F.B.I.) feels it can inves­ti­gate another (the Office of Special Counsel), but what­ever hap­pens, allow­ing such sit­u­a­tions to develop in the first place increases the per­cep­tion of mis­man­age­ment and reduces pub­lic con­fi­dence. I won­der who he knew to get him­self appoint­ment in the first place? (Or is that too cyn­i­cal a view?)