I’m heading to a Town Council meeting, but I just saw this over at Think Progress:
Tonight on MSNBC, fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias revealed new key details about the Official of Special Counsel’s (OSC) probe into Karl Rove and other White House officials reported today by the Los Angeles Times.
Iglesias said that on April 3, he filed a Hatch Act complaint with the OSC, charging that Karl Rove and others may have broke the law by firing him over his failure to initiate partisan-motivated prosecutions. Iglesias said he subsequently spoke with OSC chief Scott Bloch, who made clear that he was planning to launch an investigation.
TPM Muckraker today had more on the investigation, which will examine Karl Rove’s involvement in several possible Hatch Act violations:
Bloch (who is, by the way, a Bush appointee) seems to have combined a host of investigations — 1) whether U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias was wrongly terminated due to his Navy reserve service, and 2) the White House’s use of RNC-issued email accounts to conduct government business, and 3) Rove’s and his deputy’s presentations to federal employees about Republican electoral prospects — into one big stew pot of wrongdoing.
Of all three, Rove’s now-infamous briefings would seem to be the most fertile investigatory ground for Bloch.
But government watchdogs have accused Bloch himself of similar behavior. In April 2005, they and others complained the White House appointee had allowed his office to “sit on” a complaint that then-White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice used government funds to travel in support of President Bush’s re-election bid.
By contrast, they said, Bloch ordered an immediate on-site investigation of a complaint that Bush’s challenger for the White House, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., improperly campaigned in a government workplace, which had been filed around the same time.
Iglesias initiated OSC probe
I’m heading to a Town Council meeting, but I just saw this over at Think Progress:
TPM Muckraker today had more on the investigation, which will examine Karl Rove’s involvement in several possible Hatch Act violations:
More details about Bloch were revealed this afternoon (also via TPM Muckraker):
Related Articles
House Office release Office Expense Reports
In a new (and welcomed) form of disclosure, House members have released a huge document dump containing office expenditures for all 435 representatives....
More on the Ensign scandal
As you likely know, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) admitted yesterday to an extramarital affair, and has since resigned from his leadership position with the...
Shorter Joe Monahan
“Journalists who also blog shouldn’t criticize me because I’m right and they’re wrong. So go look at all the crazy stuff they’re...