Scott Bloch
Encyclopedia
Scott Bloch is a US
attorney, former deputy director and counsel to the Department of Justice's
Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, and former Special Counsel at the United States Office of Special Counsel
. He is notable for a significant scandal
in his department which led to his guilty plea to criminal charges of contempt of Congress
.
On October 20, 2008, Bloch announced his intention to resign from his position as Special Counsel at the OSC on January 5, 2009. But his employment ended abruptly on October 23, during a meeting with White House officials. He was subsequently barred from entry to his office by the United States Federal Protective Service, which handles security at federal facilities.
.
In February 2004, Bloch ordered all mention of sexual orientation
workplace nondiscrimination be removed from OSC's website and printed materials. Bloch stated his office lacked the authority to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Bloch's critics argued that gay
employees were protected by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
, which prohibits discrimination against federal employees "on the basis of conduct which does not adversely affect the performance of the employee." Since its enactment, all five prior presidential administrations (Ford, Carter, Reagan
, H. W. Bush, and Clinton) had interpreted this law to protect homosexual employees.
After complaints from Congress, the Bush Administration
released a statement saying homosexual employees were still protected in April 2004. Bloch issued a statement that after conducting a legal analysis: "It is the policy of this administration that discrimination in the federal workforce on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited."
This did not satisfy gay rights organizations, which claimed a lack of enforcement of the policy. The OSC has still not restored the language on its website or printed materials. Notably the Federal GLOBE (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Employees of the Federal Government) called for Bloch's resignation.
Bloch later retracted his statements and stated his office did not have the legal authority to protect employees from workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
sources, Congress, and gay rights organizations continued to criticize Special Counsel Bloch and the OSC's lack of enforcement of its policies, particularly in regards to dismissing gay discrimination complaints.
For example, Michael Levine, a 65-year-old and openly gay radio
technician
, claimed that, after he blew the whistle on a coworker's and his supervisor's workplace misconduct, a personnel officer engaged in retaliatory action against him: pursuing knowingly false allegations of child pornography
against Levine, suspending
Levine for 14 days, seizing his computer, and referring to gay people as "those fucking faggots
".
One year after filing both a retaliation and antigay discrimination complaint with the OSC, Levine received a letter from the OSC on December 28, 2004. Without interviewing even a single witness, the OSC wrote that it was unable to investigate the complaints because only conduct, not sexual orientation, was protected under the Civil Service Act of 1978—a reversal of Bloch's April 8, 2004 statement that sexual orientation-based discrimination was prohibited due to imputed conduct and therefore that the OSC has the authority to pursue such complaints.
After being embroiled in a related "internal purge" controversy (see below), Special Counsel Bloch testified before a Senate
panel on May 24, 2005 and reiterated his original position that he lacked the authority to protect federal employees on the basis of sexual orientation.
The next day, the Log Cabin Republicans
called on Bloch to resign.
Bloch's defenders, including writers at the conservative magazine Human Events
, argued that Bloch was being unfairly attacked.
of OSC employees by three government watchdog
groups (the Government Accountability Project
, the Project on Government Oversight
, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), two federal
trade union
s (the American Federation of Government Employees
and the National Treasury Employees Union
), an LGBT rights organization (the Human Rights Campaign
), and the OSC employees themselves.
The Washington Blade reported that, according to unnamed sources "familiar with the agency", the employees had been targeted partly because of their disagreement with diminishing the jurisdiction of the OSC in prosecuting antigay workplace discrimination. Both of the gay staffers had been critical of reducing OSC's role. Another of the twelve employees had reached a favorable settlement on behalf of a gay federal employee who filed a discrimination complaint against his supervisor. In the end, ten of the twelve employees resigned. Meanwhile, according to complaints, at least one staffer who had been supportive of Bloch's interpretation was promoted.
In October 2005, the US
Office of Personnel Management
ordered an investigation of claims that Special Counsel Bloch retaliated against employees who disagreed with his policies. Ironically, the OSC would ordinarily oversee such whistleblower disputes. The probe is also investigating whether Bloch showed an antigay bias in refusing certain whistleblower and discrimination claims.
In February 2007, Bloch was again accused of unfair supervisor practices when several of his staffers complained they felt coerced into not cooperating with the OPM probe. Bloch's deputy issued a memo urging OSC employees to only meet with probe investigaters in a certain conference room and to report their interactions to their supervisors. Employees reported other attempts to obstruct the investigation including "suggestions that all witnesses interviewed ... provide Bloch with affidavits describing what they had been asked and how they responded."
It is alleged that Scott Bloch erased the files on his office personal computer in 2007, and that the FBI is trying to determine whether the emails were deleted improperly. The inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management is examining the case at the urging of the White House.
The Journal reports that Bloch called the tech support service Geeks on Call for help deleting computer files instead of using his agency's own in-house computer technicians. Bloch confirmed that he contacted Geeks on Call, but insisted that it was to remove a computer virus.
Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the White House to save all of its emails in response to lawsuits from two private organizations, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government, and The National Security Archive. The groups allege that as many as five million White House emails are missing.
and the Wall Street Journal reported that the raids were in relation to an investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice
by Bloch's office.
The New York Times reported that the investigation concerned whether Bloch had hired an outside company to "scrub" computer files to prevent an inquiry into whether he had violated the Hatch Act
by mixing politics with his job, which is to shield whistleblowers.
As part of an investigation into destruction of evidence, Bloch's person was searched and two portable memory devices were recovered.
for, according to the U.S. Attorney, "willfully and unlawfully withholding pertinent information from a House committee investigating his decision to have several government computers wiped ...." Bloch was originally slated to be sentenced on July 20, 2010. However, the sentencing was postponed after watchdog groups objected to a plea deal which would have likely seen Bloch only get probation; contempt of Congress carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison. On February 2, Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson ruled that Bloch faces a mandatory sentence of at least one month in prison.
The misdemeanor contempt statute to which he pled, 2 U.S.C. 192, is not a lying to Congress misdemeanor, is not a false statement statute. He was not under oath in the interview with Congress over a computer incident in his office. He was asked over two hours of questions a year and a half after the events occurred without any reference to notes or documents of any kind. The plea was based on not fully cooperating with Congress in that interview on five particular questions and answers deep into the interview.
He has moved to withdraw his plea because it was obtained in violation of the Constitution and the federal rules governing pleas. The open records of the Court indicate from the U.S. Government that they have entered into negotiations for a different misdemeanor plea if this one is vacated by the U.S. District Court where the appeal is pending.
Bloch achieved many things in the Office of Special Counsel, and shook up the bureaucracy, in ways nobody in office had ever done, which resulted in attacks from many quarters on the Left, on the Right, and among federal employee groups, activists and interest groups. One commentator on the federal bureaucracy stated that the mistreatment of Bloch resulted from his taking them on and making them do things differently. He caused an Inspector General to leave office, and a United States Attorney, as well as, some say, Karl Rove himself. Others have written that the animus directed at Bloch came from an anti-Catholic bias.
He cleaned up his own agency, dispensing with a ten year old backlog while at the same time increasing positive whistleblower referrals by 400 percent, slashing processing times for employment complaints by more than half, increasing USERRA service member rights enforcement by slashing processing times by more than 1000 percent with vastly increased results for service members, and increasing Hatch Act prosecution and enforcement and slashing processing times for those complaints by half.
He has continued to be an advocate of greater transparency and adherence to safety oversight in the federal government in the face of continuing violations of regulations and danger to the flying public that OSC, under Bloch, fought to correct.
He is the grandson of renowned abstract expressionist
Albert Bloch
.
He has continued to write op eds on important public interest subjects like the Hatch Act investigations he instigated, that resulted in a recent lengthy report and the White House’s abolishing of the Office of Political Affairs overseen by such notables as Karl Rove under President George W. Bush and James Carville under President Bill Clinton.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attorney, former deputy director and counsel to the Department of Justice's
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, and former Special Counsel at the United States Office of Special Counsel
United States Office of Special Counsel
The United States Office of Special Counsel is a permanent independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency whose basic legislative authority comes from three federal statutes, the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act and the Hatch Act...
. He is notable for a significant scandal
Scandal
A scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages the reputation of an institution, individual or creed...
in his department which led to his guilty plea to criminal charges of contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically the bribery of a senator or representative was considered contempt of Congress...
.
On October 20, 2008, Bloch announced his intention to resign from his position as Special Counsel at the OSC on January 5, 2009. But his employment ended abruptly on October 23, during a meeting with White House officials. He was subsequently barred from entry to his office by the United States Federal Protective Service, which handles security at federal facilities.
Removal of Sexual Orientation Non-discrimination
Bloch's first major actions as head of the office were to choose as deputy a lawyer who had publicly taken a position against the "homosexual agenda", and to hire young lawyers from Ave Maria School of LawAve Maria School of Law
The Ave Maria School of Law, founded in 1999, is a fully ABA accredited Roman Catholic law school, located in Naples, Florida. In the 2009-2010 academic year, there were over 375 students enrolled from a variety of states, countries, and undergraduate institutions...
.
In February 2004, Bloch ordered all mention of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
workplace nondiscrimination be removed from OSC's website and printed materials. Bloch stated his office lacked the authority to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Bloch's critics argued that gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
employees were protected by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, , reformed the civil service of the United States federal government.The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 abolished the U.S...
, which prohibits discrimination against federal employees "on the basis of conduct which does not adversely affect the performance of the employee." Since its enactment, all five prior presidential administrations (Ford, Carter, Reagan
Reagan Administration
The United States presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989....
, H. W. Bush, and Clinton) had interpreted this law to protect homosexual employees.
After complaints from Congress, the Bush Administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
released a statement saying homosexual employees were still protected in April 2004. Bloch issued a statement that after conducting a legal analysis: "It is the policy of this administration that discrimination in the federal workforce on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited."
This did not satisfy gay rights organizations, which claimed a lack of enforcement of the policy. The OSC has still not restored the language on its website or printed materials. Notably the Federal GLOBE (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Employees of the Federal Government) called for Bloch's resignation.
Bloch later retracted his statements and stated his office did not have the legal authority to protect employees from workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Alleged Refusal to investigate complaints
MediaMass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
sources, Congress, and gay rights organizations continued to criticize Special Counsel Bloch and the OSC's lack of enforcement of its policies, particularly in regards to dismissing gay discrimination complaints.
For example, Michael Levine, a 65-year-old and openly gay radio
Receiver (radio)
A radio receiver converts signals from a radio antenna to a usable form. It uses electronic filters to separate a wanted radio frequency signal from all other signals, the electronic amplifier increases the level suitable for further processing, and finally recovers the desired information through...
technician
Technician
A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skills and techniques, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Experienced technicians in a specific tool domain typically have intermediate understanding of theory and expert...
, claimed that, after he blew the whistle on a coworker's and his supervisor's workplace misconduct, a personnel officer engaged in retaliatory action against him: pursuing knowingly false allegations of child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
against Levine, suspending
Suspension (punishment)
Suspension is a form of punishment that people receive for violating rules and regulations.- Workplace :Suspension is a common practice in the workplace for being in violation of an organization's policy...
Levine for 14 days, seizing his computer, and referring to gay people as "those fucking faggots
Faggot (epithet)
Faggot, often shortened to fag, is a pejorative term and common slur used chiefly in North America against homosexual males. Its pejorative use has spread from the United States to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world through mass culture, including movies, music, and the...
".
One year after filing both a retaliation and antigay discrimination complaint with the OSC, Levine received a letter from the OSC on December 28, 2004. Without interviewing even a single witness, the OSC wrote that it was unable to investigate the complaints because only conduct, not sexual orientation, was protected under the Civil Service Act of 1978—a reversal of Bloch's April 8, 2004 statement that sexual orientation-based discrimination was prohibited due to imputed conduct and therefore that the OSC has the authority to pursue such complaints.
After being embroiled in a related "internal purge" controversy (see below), Special Counsel Bloch testified before a Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
panel on May 24, 2005 and reiterated his original position that he lacked the authority to protect federal employees on the basis of sexual orientation.
The next day, the Log Cabin Republicans
Log Cabin Republicans
The Log Cabin Republicans is an organization that works within the Republican Party to advocate equal rights for all Americans, including gays and lesbians in the United States with state chapters and a national office in Washington, D.C...
called on Bloch to resign.
Bloch's defenders, including writers at the conservative magazine Human Events
Human Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
, argued that Bloch was being unfairly attacked.
Reorganization or Internal Purge
In January 2005, the controversy escalated when Bloch ordered twelve OSC staffers, including the only two known gay employees, to transfer to distant cities or lose their jobs. Bloch was accused of conducting a political purgePurge
In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
of OSC employees by three government watchdog
Watchdog journalism
Watchdog journalism aims to hold accountable public personalities and institutions, whose functions impact social and political life. The term "lapdog journalism", for journalism biased in favour of personalities and institutions, is sometimes used as a conceptual opposite to watchdog...
groups (the Government Accountability Project
Government Accountability Project
The Government Accountability Project is a leading United States whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating of whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, GAP’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability...
, the Project on Government Oversight
Project on Government Oversight
The Project On Government Oversight , founded in 1981, is an independent non-profit organization in the United States which investigates and seeks to expose corruption and other misconduct. POGO assists whistleblowers and investigates federal agencies, Congress, and government contractors...
, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), two federal
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s (the American Federation of Government Employees
American Federation of Government Employees
The American Federation of Government Employees is an American labor union representing over 625,000 employees of the federal government, about 5,000 employees of the District of Columbia, and a few hundred private sector employees, mostly in and around federal facilities...
and the National Treasury Employees Union
National Treasury Employees Union
The National Treasury Employees Union is an independent labor union representing approximately 150,000 employees of 30 agencies of the United States government...
), an LGBT rights organization (the Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
), and the OSC employees themselves.
The Washington Blade reported that, according to unnamed sources "familiar with the agency", the employees had been targeted partly because of their disagreement with diminishing the jurisdiction of the OSC in prosecuting antigay workplace discrimination. Both of the gay staffers had been critical of reducing OSC's role. Another of the twelve employees had reached a favorable settlement on behalf of a gay federal employee who filed a discrimination complaint against his supervisor. In the end, ten of the twelve employees resigned. Meanwhile, according to complaints, at least one staffer who had been supportive of Bloch's interpretation was promoted.
In October 2005, the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Office of Personnel Management
Office of Personnel Management
The United States Office of Personnel Management is an independent agency of the United States government that manages the civil service of the federal government. The current Director is John Berry.-History:...
ordered an investigation of claims that Special Counsel Bloch retaliated against employees who disagreed with his policies. Ironically, the OSC would ordinarily oversee such whistleblower disputes. The probe is also investigating whether Bloch showed an antigay bias in refusing certain whistleblower and discrimination claims.
In February 2007, Bloch was again accused of unfair supervisor practices when several of his staffers complained they felt coerced into not cooperating with the OPM probe. Bloch's deputy issued a memo urging OSC employees to only meet with probe investigaters in a certain conference room and to report their interactions to their supervisors. Employees reported other attempts to obstruct the investigation including "suggestions that all witnesses interviewed ... provide Bloch with affidavits describing what they had been asked and how they responded."
Under investigation for the alleged improper deletion of emails on office computers
Scott Bloch was under investigation for the alleged improper deletion of emails on office computers.It is alleged that Scott Bloch erased the files on his office personal computer in 2007, and that the FBI is trying to determine whether the emails were deleted improperly. The inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management is examining the case at the urging of the White House.
The Journal reports that Bloch called the tech support service Geeks on Call for help deleting computer files instead of using his agency's own in-house computer technicians. Bloch confirmed that he contacted Geeks on Call, but insisted that it was to remove a computer virus.
Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the White House to save all of its emails in response to lawsuits from two private organizations, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government, and The National Security Archive. The groups allege that as many as five million White House emails are missing.
FBI raid
On May 6, 2008, FBI agents raided Bloch's offices. NPRNPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
and the Wall Street Journal reported that the raids were in relation to an investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice
Obstruction of justice
The crime of obstruction of justice, in United States jurisdictions, refers to the crime of interfering with the work of police, investigators, regulatory agencies, prosecutors, or other officials...
by Bloch's office.
The New York Times reported that the investigation concerned whether Bloch had hired an outside company to "scrub" computer files to prevent an inquiry into whether he had violated the Hatch Act
Hatch Act of 1939
The Hatch Act of 1939 is a United States federal law whose main provision is to prohibit federal employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the President and the Vice President, from engaging in partisan political activity...
by mixing politics with his job, which is to shield whistleblowers.
As part of an investigation into destruction of evidence, Bloch's person was searched and two portable memory devices were recovered.
Criminal conviction
On April 27, 2010 Bloch pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of CongressContempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically the bribery of a senator or representative was considered contempt of Congress...
for, according to the U.S. Attorney, "willfully and unlawfully withholding pertinent information from a House committee investigating his decision to have several government computers wiped ...." Bloch was originally slated to be sentenced on July 20, 2010. However, the sentencing was postponed after watchdog groups objected to a plea deal which would have likely seen Bloch only get probation; contempt of Congress carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison. On February 2, Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson ruled that Bloch faces a mandatory sentence of at least one month in prison.
The misdemeanor contempt statute to which he pled, 2 U.S.C. 192, is not a lying to Congress misdemeanor, is not a false statement statute. He was not under oath in the interview with Congress over a computer incident in his office. He was asked over two hours of questions a year and a half after the events occurred without any reference to notes or documents of any kind. The plea was based on not fully cooperating with Congress in that interview on five particular questions and answers deep into the interview.
He has moved to withdraw his plea because it was obtained in violation of the Constitution and the federal rules governing pleas. The open records of the Court indicate from the U.S. Government that they have entered into negotiations for a different misdemeanor plea if this one is vacated by the U.S. District Court where the appeal is pending.
Other activities
Scott J. Bloch served as United States Special Counsel from December 12, 2003, when George W. Bush signed his appointment, filling out his five year statutory term on December 11, 2008. Bloch achieved a great deal of oversight while Special Counsel in the United States Office of Special Counsel, which was widely reported on during his five year tenure, including aviation near miss cover ups and airworthiness safety check cover ups that caused the grounding of 1000 plus planes. Since 2009, he practices law in Washington, D.C. in the areas of complex litigation, government contracts, injured contractors abroad, class actions, and employment matters in the federal and private sector. He has sued Blackwater Worldwide and Xe Services, formerly Blackwater, alleging that Blackwater deprived thousands of security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan of their employment benefits and retirement benefits by misclassifying them as independent contractors.Bloch achieved many things in the Office of Special Counsel, and shook up the bureaucracy, in ways nobody in office had ever done, which resulted in attacks from many quarters on the Left, on the Right, and among federal employee groups, activists and interest groups. One commentator on the federal bureaucracy stated that the mistreatment of Bloch resulted from his taking them on and making them do things differently. He caused an Inspector General to leave office, and a United States Attorney, as well as, some say, Karl Rove himself. Others have written that the animus directed at Bloch came from an anti-Catholic bias.
He cleaned up his own agency, dispensing with a ten year old backlog while at the same time increasing positive whistleblower referrals by 400 percent, slashing processing times for employment complaints by more than half, increasing USERRA service member rights enforcement by slashing processing times by more than 1000 percent with vastly increased results for service members, and increasing Hatch Act prosecution and enforcement and slashing processing times for those complaints by half.
He has continued to be an advocate of greater transparency and adherence to safety oversight in the federal government in the face of continuing violations of regulations and danger to the flying public that OSC, under Bloch, fought to correct.
He is the grandson of renowned abstract expressionist
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
Albert Bloch
Albert Bloch
Albert Bloch was an American Modernist artist and the only American artist associated with Der Blaue Reiter , a group of early 20th-century European modernists....
.
He has continued to write op eds on important public interest subjects like the Hatch Act investigations he instigated, that resulted in a recent lengthy report and the White House’s abolishing of the Office of Political Affairs overseen by such notables as Karl Rove under President George W. Bush and James Carville under President Bill Clinton.
Background
- Official bio on OSC website
- Transcript of Bloch's nomination hearing pdf
- "Bloch on Bloch", Lawrence Journal-World, April 7, 2002. Scott Bloch on his grandfather, Albert BlochAlbert BlochAlbert Bloch was an American Modernist artist and the only American artist associated with Der Blaue Reiter , a group of early 20th-century European modernists....
- "Office of Special Counsel - the dark legacy", Red County, July 23, 2010.
Federal complaint and investigation of Bloch
- "Letter to Fred Fielding", Katz, Marshall and Banks, October 9, 2007
- "Bush's Special Counsel Tied to Anti-Gay Groups", Washington Blade, March 19, 2004
- Complaint of Prohibited Personnel Practices Against Special Counsel Scott Bloch, from Project on Government OversightProject on Government OversightThe Project On Government Oversight , founded in 1981, is an independent non-profit organization in the United States which investigates and seeks to expose corruption and other misconduct. POGO assists whistleblowers and investigates federal agencies, Congress, and government contractors...
website (filed March 3, 2005) Complaint Exhibits - "Federal Whistleblower Office Faces Criticism", National Public Radio, March 9, 2005
- "OPM Investigator Launches Probe of Office of Special Counsel Chief", Govexec.com, October 19, 2005
- "Office of Special Counsel's War On Whistleblowers", Mother Jones, April 24, 2007
Other criticism and Bloch's response
- "A Published Dress Code is Dressed Down in Furor", Washington Post, September 7, 2006
- "Special Counsel Cancels Award Ceremony for Whistle-Blower", Washington Post, September 11, 2006
- "Protecting Whistle-Blowers and the Public", op-edOp-edAn op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
by Scott Bloch in Washington Post, September 23, 2006
- written in response to the Posts September 11, 2006 article
- "Report Shows Little Progress Reducing Case Backlog at OSC", Govexec.com, November 9, 2006
- Scott Blochs Sad Saga
Alberto Gonzalez investigation
- "GSA Briefing Now Part of Wider Investigation", Washington Post, April 24, 2007
- "Task Force to Examine Alleged Improper Politicking", Washington Post, April 25, 2007
- "Agency Watching the Agencies Walks Fine Line on Conflict-of-Interest Issues", The HillThe Hill (newspaper)The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....
, April 26, 2007 - "Karl Rove's Least Likely Interrogator: Scott Bloch and the Office of Special Counsel", Mother Jones (April 25, 2007)