Bloch's Suspicious Call to Geeks

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal claims that the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Scott Bloch, may have improperly deleted files on his office computer. The story lays out an odd sequence of events, in which Bloch, in December 2006, bypassed his own IT shop and called Geeks on Call to come to his office to erase all files on his hard drive and the drives on two laptops used by deputies. Bloch claims in the article that the he was trying to rid the computers of a virus, and asked Geeks on Call to conduct a “seven-level” wipe of the hard drive, one of the most thorough cleansing operations for hard drives, which leaves virtually every file unreadable. The WSJ quotes a Geeks on Call executive saying the company typically doesn’t conduct seven-level wipes to remove viruses and that it is unusual to get calls from government officials. The article doesn’t say why Bloch felt it necessary to ignore using his own IT staff to rid the computers of the virus, and a WSJ examination of the $1,149 Geeks bill mentions nothing about a virus.

Bloch, whose office is conducting an investigation into the White House’s political operations, is himself under investigation by the Office of Personnel Management's inspector general, who is looking into claims that Bloch retaliated against employees and dismissed whistleblower cases before thoroughly examining the charges. The IG has asked Bloch for emails; Bloch says the hard-drive erasure did not affect files pertinent to any investigation. In June, Bloch sent a report to President Bush recommending he punish General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan to the “fullest extent” for violating the law prohibiting federal employees to use federal resources for political purposes.