Whistleblower Groups Urge Chief Judge To Consider Former Special Counsel's Failure To Take Responsibility During Criminal Sentencing
Weeks After Telling Sentencing Judge that He Accepted Responsibility for Withholding Information from Congress, Bloch Filed a $202 Million RICO Lawsuit Against Individuals, Whistleblower Protection Groups, and Federal Investigators Who Reported His Criminal Acts to the Department of Justice
Today, counsel for former employees of the United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and for a coalition of national whistleblower protection groups – the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), the Government Accountability Project (GAP), and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) – sent a strongly worded letter to Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia urging him to consider former Special Counsel Scott Bloch’s latest misdeed (filing a retaliatory and frivolous lawsuit against the individuals, whistleblower groups, and federal investigators who reported his criminal misconduct to the Department of Justice) when ruling on Bloch’s appeal of his one-month prison sentence.
Counsel for the coalition advised Judge Lamberth that they opposed the one month sentence that Bloch was given by Magistrate Judge Robinson for withholding information from Congress because it does not appropriately reflect the severity of his admitted actions. According to Debra S. Katz, counsel for the coalition, “Mr. Bloch has not accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct and his expressions of contrition to the court are hollow.”
According to Katz’s letter to the Court, within weeks of Bloch’s appearance before Magistrate Judge Robinson during which he purported to accept responsibility for his actions and expressed contrition to the Court for his criminal misconduct, Bloch filed a $202 Million lawsuit in Fairfax County Court against the whistleblower groups who reported his misconduct, the government agencies and investigators that investigated and then reported the misconduct to the United States Department of Justice, and several high-level government officials connected with his removal from office, among others, blaming them individually and as part of an alleged conspiracy for his civil and criminal investigation, removal from office, indictment, and conviction.
In this suit, Bloch accused former Presidential Advisor Karl Rove, and former White House Counsel Fred Fielding, Lurita Doan, former Secretary of the General Services Administration, and others of conspiring with whistleblower protection advocates, and federal investigators to terminate his employment. Katz stated that “rather than accepting Mr. Bloch’s word that he has taken responsibility for his criminal acts, let’s look at his actions. He now wants to be paid $202 million for the mess he has gotten himself into.”
Danielle Brian, POGO’s executive director, noted that “Mr. Bloch admitted that he directed the deletion of computer files at OSC by bringing in Geeks on Call to unlawfully delete Agency computer files. Scott Bloch pled guilty to withholding information from Congress. Scott Bloch told the Court he was sorry. And then Scott Bloch sued us and other whistleblower protection groups. This hardly sounds like taking responsibility to me.”
Oversight in your inbox
Sent Saturdays