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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Bush’s Counsel Fights ‘Nefarious Reports’

FAIRFAX, Va. (CN) - President George W. Bush's Office of Special Counsel head Scott Bloch filed his third RICO complaint in as many years, again claiming that Bush administration officials, Congressman Tom Davis and others conspired to boot him out of office with a bogus criminal investigation, to cover up their own corruption and misuse of power at the highest levels of government.

Bloch, who pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of Congress in 2010 and was sentenced to one day in jail after he hired Geeks on Call to erase data from federal computers, sued Davis, Bush confidante Clay Johnson, the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Katherine Archuletta and others in Fairfax County Court.

Karl Rove, who was named as a defendant in Bloch's past attempts, is not a party to the case.

Bloch and his wife Catherine claim that White House officials launched an illegal investigation into him, raided their home in front of their children and conspired to keep Bloch from carrying out his duties as special counsel.

Bloch was appointed special counsel for the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) in 2004 and immediately became controversial, removing sexual orientation from the Office's list of protected classes from workplace discrimination.

He claims that his predecessor had erroneously misinterpreted the Civil Service Reform Act as providing protection against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

"Importantly, plaintiff did not determine that persons seeking to remedy discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation had no legal remedy at OSC," the 67-page complaint states, echoing his words from his 2011 complaint. "Indeed, plaintiff concluded at the end of the legal review that such discrimination claims could be processed by OSC to the extent they alleged discrimination based on conduct not adversely affecting job performance."

Bloch claims White House officials, specifically the Deputy White House Counsel, "threatened plaintiff with termination if he did not reverse his decision," but Bloch maintained that the OSC was an independent agency and immune to such threats.

He also claims he caught heat for reassigning 12 employees, including two openly gay employees, to difference field offices, a move that "generated substantial media interest ... and complaints from disgruntled employees" who saw it as a political purge.

The White House took note, Bloch says, and concocted a bogus investigation into him to intimidate him and discredit Bloch's own investigation of Rove over allegations that he used White House resources to influence the 2004 election.

"At all times, the investigation sanctioned by Harriet Miers, and then Clay Johnson, was illegal, without authority; biased, ultra vires, and done with the intent to drive plaintiff from office and impede, impair interfere with and prevent his execution of duties of office," Bloch says in the lawsuit.

He adds: "In perversion of law and in violation of the agreement allowing OPM-OIG to investigate this claim against OSC, OPM and OPM-OIG morphed its investigation of civil claims for prohibited personnel practices into a criminal matter with FBI -- all in excess of its lawful jurisdiction if it ever had any, and was done in an effort to cover up its own wrongdoing, illegality, mishandling of the investigation, unauthorized assumption of powers, and on orders from Davis, [Bush administration official Lurita] Doan, [Bush counsel Fred] Fielding, Johnson, and unknown other intermediaries, staffers or members of Congress, placing pressure on individuals in the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorneys Office of the District of Columbia, the FBI, and the OPM-IG and Executive Office of the President."

Bloch says that in addition to Fielding threatening to fire him, he was offered a job with a law firm along with the promise to put his name up for a federal judgeship if he played ball and resigned.

But Bloch says he refused, and that the government's tactics against him escalated, culminating in an FBI-led raid of his house and his eventual firing.

Bloch claims that throughout the conspiracy, the White House leaked misinformation about him, falsely accusing him of obstructing justice.

He maintains that he hired Geeks on Call to repair a work laptop that held mostly personal files.

"Defendants have continued in their molestation and hindrance of plaintiffs, to the present day and are illegally continuing to prevent exercise of civil rights," the complaint states. "To suppress the truth, and to assert a right to file false, defamatory and nefarious reports of plaintiff's activities as special counsel to the degradation of the rights of Whistleblowers Bloch protected and is continuing to protect through his efforts in this suit, writings, and his defense of actions in the Office of Special Counsel."

Bloch and his wife want $102 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages.

In addition to his racketeering complaints against the government, the couple have also sued Sears, Roebuck and Co. in Fairfax County several times, seeking $4.9 million in damages for refusing to fix the defective refrigerator they bought.

They are represented by William Skepnek, of Lawrence, Kan.

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