Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel who has been under investigation for retaliation against employees and failure to investigate whistleblower cases, is under suspicion for using Geeks-on-Call to erase all the files on his office computer last year as well as laptops belonging to two of his former deputies.
Bloch claims that he had Geeks-on-Call delete all of his computer files and erase his hard drive because his computer had been seized by a virus. But he apparently bypassed his own agency's IT department when he brought in the outside geeks to do the clean-up. And, as the *Wall Street Journal *reports, the receipt for the work makes no mention of a virus.
Furthermore, the kind of erase Geeks-on-Call conducted on his computer -- a seven-level wipe -- is considered excessive for treating a virus. As the head of Geeks-on-Call's Washington office told the WSJ, "We don't do a seven-level wipe for a virus."
Such thorough wipes are generally conducted on machines when an individual or company is getting ready to sell them. A wipe like this is also effective if someone wants to prevent forensic investigators from recovering data on a machine.
Bloch says that no files related to investigations were affected by the wipe.
Bloch's office has been investigating whether Karl Rove and other White House officials used their public offices to engage in electioneering on behalf of Republican candidates in the 2006 election. Ironically, as part of that investigation, Bloch, a Bush appointee, was looking into the disappearance of e-mails that White House officials sent through the Republican National Committee's e-mail system.
But Bloch, who once led the Justice Department's Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, came under investigation himself last year when he was accused of retaliating against career employees in his office who didn't toe a conservative line and of dismissing significant whistleblower cases brought by government employees to, reportedly, reduce the number of cases the office had to handle. The Office of Special Counsel is charged with protecting government whistleblowers.
If investigators find that in erasing his computer Bloch deleted potential evidence related to investigations, he could be charged with obstruction of justice.
