The FEC Calls for Jail Time at the Sentencing of Former Bush Administration Special Counsel Scott Bloch

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Jul 16, 2010, 05:13 ET

Event at National Press Club - News Alert for Monday, July 19, 2010

WASHINGTON, July 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- David B. Nolan, the President and Legal Director of the Federal Ethics Center, today called for the federal court's plea bargain maximum of six months jail time at the July 20th sentencing of former Bush Administration Special Counsel Scott Bloch for contempt of Congress. Nolan predicted that "the Obama Administration Justice Department might acquiesce to no jail time and no more than a $5,000 fine even though contempt of Congress carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $150,000 fine." Bloch was entrusted with the protection of federal civil service rights for his five-year term of presidential appointment.

Bloch is the first former Bush-Cheney agency head to plea bargain to a criminal violation and face a jail sentence. During Bloch's four year and eight months tenure as the chief protector of federal employees, Nolan alleges that "the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) failed in its statutory duty to investigate vigorously prohibited personnel practice complaints arising from a federal civilian workforce over two million." Nolan quipped that, "Special Counsel Bloch was only 'special' in that unlike his predecessors, Reagan appointee Alex Kozinski and Clinton appointee Elaine Kaplan, he was the only one accused of retaliating against his own agency employees for perceived sexual preference. Like the decisions of MSPB members such as Beth Slavet, rights for federal employees by OSC were never expanded."

Former White House ethics counsel Nolan surmises that Mr. Bloch lost his political protection as a Bush appointee when OSC investigated former Deputy White House Chief Karl Rove for the alleged Hatch Act violation of politicizing the appointment process of U.S. Attorneys to the U.S. Department of Justice. Unlike convicted assistant to Vice President Cheney, Scooter Libby, Rove was not indicted let alone convicted for any crime.

The federal government convicted Bloch of "willfully" withholding information during a March 4, 2008 interview with staff members from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about deleted files. Bloch was purported to have hired "Geeks on Call" to delete files from his office computer at a time he was under investigation by the inspector general at the Office of Personnel Management for retaliating against his own OSC employees.

"The Bush-Cheney fox who was entrusted with guarding the federal henhouse actually devoured his own agency's chickens while they were trying to enforce the rights of other all federal employees," comments Mr. Nolan.

Former White House ethics official David Nolan will respond to questions at his 1 p.m. press conference on Monday, July 19 at the National Press Club (NPC). The session will be held in the Edward R. Murrow Room of NPC on the 13th floor. NPC is located at 529 14th Street NW, Washington, DC.