Memo Shows Frustration With Special Counsel: Staffers Hinted At Impropriety (Siegelman)

[babylonsister]

Memo Shows Frustration With Special Counsel: Staffers Hinted At Impropriety
Submitted by davidswanson on Sun, 2008-05-11 05:34.


By Christopher Lee, Washington Post


Last September, career investigators at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel opened a probe into whether partisan politics were a factor in the Justice Department's prosecution of former Democratic Alabama governor Don Siegelman on corruption charges in 2006.

Siegelman, who narrowly lost his reelection bid in 2002 and intended to run again in 2006, has insistently alleged that Karl Rove, then a White House adviser, targeted him for prosecution to ensure he did not oust a Republican governor.

But on Oct. 11, OSC chief Scott J. Bloch ordered the case file be closed immediately, saying that he had not authorized it, seven career employees wrote in an internal draft memo made public last week.

"After concerns are expressed that OSC simply cannot close a file without conducting an investigation into theses {sic} allegations, the TF {task force} is directed to not further investigate this case and to wait for further instructions from the Special Counsel," the employees wrote in the document dated Jan. 18.

That episode and others detailed in the 13-page memo illustrate how the controversial Bush appointee, whom critics on Capitol Hill and elsewhere have accused of political bias and managerial misconduct, frequently has been at odds with top career staffers over which cases should be pursued by the principal office protecting federal whistle-blowers and policing partisan politicking in the federal workplace.

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http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33360

[Supersedeas]

1. Mukasey has been awful silent since his 9/11 missed phone call blast