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 FBI Raids Office Of Special Counsel
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: May 6, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(Washington) The FBI raided the office of U.S.
Special Counsel Scott Bloch Tuesday in an inquiry of whether he obstructed
justice by having his computer files erased.
FBI officials said computers and documents were
seized from Bloch's office during the raid Tuesday morning.
Investigators say Bloch (pictured) is suspected
of hiring an outside company to scrub his computer amid a federal investigation
of alleged misconduct in his office.
The inquiry has been under way for more than a
year and is looking into charges of intimidation and retaliation against
whistle-blowers among staff members working in Bloch's agency.
Bloch, the man responsible for protecting
whistleblowers and investigating complaints of discrimination by federal
workers, has for more than five years refused to take on complaints of
discrimination based on sexuality.
Bloch's stonewalling complaints of discrimination
by LGBT federal workers dates to February 2004 when he ordered references to
sexual orientation removed from the Office of the Special Counsel website. Since
1998, when President Bill Clinton issued an executive order prohibiting bias in
the civil service, the OSC has taken that to include sexuality.
A month after the references disappeared from the
OSC website Bloch said gay workers were no longer protected.
After intense pressure from Federal Globe - the
LGBT organization for federal civil servants - and from Democrats on The Hill,
the White House said it would honor the Executive Order signed by Clinton that
that had been taken as assurance LGBT workers had civil rights protections.
But with Bloch's approval, several union
contracts negotiated with various branches of the government removed the list of
categories that are protected replacing them with the more nebulous phrase
"any class protected by law."
Appearing in May 2005, before the the Senate
Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on oversight of government
management, the federal workforce and the District of Columbia, Bloch said that
his interpretation of the Clinton executive order cannot be used to protect gay
workers because it does not specifically name LGBT workers. (story)
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