Today, CREW asked the Office of the Special Counsel (“OSC”) to investigate whether former United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey Chris Christie violated the Hatch Act by discussing a run for Governor of New Jersey with then-White House official Karl Rove while he was still the U.S. Attorney.

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee released over 700 pages of on-the-record interview transcripts of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers on the U.S. Attorney firings and the Bush administration’s politicization of the Department of Justice. During the course of his interview with the Committee, Mr. Rove was asked about contacts he had with Chris Christie, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Specifically, Mr. Rove was asked whether he or anyone at in the Office of Political Affairs had any communications with Mr. Christie or his office after he started as U.S. Attorney.

Mr. Rove responded:

I talked to him twice in the last couple of years, perhaps one time while I was at the White House and once or twice since I left the White House, but – not regarding his duties as U.S. Attorney, but regarding his interest in running for Governor, and he asked me questions about who – who were good people that knew about running for Governor that he could talk to.

The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from running for the nomination or as a candidate for election to a partisan political office. Employees are barred from any action that can reasonably be construed as evidence an individual is seeking support for or undertaking an initial campaign to secure a nomination or election to office. Prohibited activities include canvassing or soliciting support as well as meeting with individuals to plan the logistics and strategy of a campaign.

Mr. Rove’s statements demonstrate that while Mr. Christie was the U.S. Attorney, he met with individuals to plan the logistics and strategy of a campaign and to seek support in his efforts to secure the Republican nomination for governor in violation of the Hatch Act. The Merit Systems Protection Board has held the OSC retains jurisdiction over such matters even whereas here, the employee has left the federal government.

CREW executive director Melanie Sloan stated

The Hatch Act is intended to ensure federal employees do their jobs without regard to partisan politics. Mr. Christie’s actions call into question whether the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office investigated and prosecuted cases based on application of the law to the facts, or because certain prosecutions might have enhanced his prospects of securing the Republican nomination for governor.

Lurita Doan did violate the Hatch Act according to the agency charged with making those determinations according to Federal Times:

An Office of Special Counsel report has found that General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal officials from partisan political activity while on the job, sources say.

The report addresses a Jan. 26 lunch meeting at GSA headquarters attended by Doan and about 40 political appointees, some of whom participated by videoconference. During the meeting, Scott Jennings, the White House deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation that included slides listing Democratic and Republican seats the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008, a map of contested Senate seats and other information on 2008 election strategy.

According to meeting participants, Doan asked after the call how GSA could help “our candidates.”

When this story first broke, CREW's Anne Weismann wrote a blog post that explained why a political briefing at GSA HQ violated the Hatch Act:

At yesterday's hearing on misconduct at the General Services Administration before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, some very revealing emails were disclosed that indicated further use by White House officials of RNC email accounts.

These emails accompanied a PowerPoint presentation prepared by the White House Office of Political Affairs targeting the most vulnerable democratic members of the House and Senate. The White House will undoubtedly continue to defend White House staffers' use of RNC email accounts as required by the Hatch Act, which allows certain White House staff to conduct political activities while at the White House but prohibits them from using government resources to do so.

Here’s the hitch, however -- if these materials were truly “political,” then GSA administrator Lurita Doan and others violated the Hatch Act when they allowed and participated directly in partisan political activity at GSA headquarters during working hours.

The LA Times reports that Scott Bloch has started his investigation in to multiple White House scandals, including the firing of U.S. Attorneys, the missing e-mails and potential violations of the Hatch Act.  We'll be keeping an eye on this investigation.  As we noted earlier this week, we're skeptical.  But, Bloch claims that his organization has begun:

Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch met with White House Counsel Fred F. Fielding on Thursday as he pushed ahead with an ambitious inquiry into White House political operations.

"I came away believing that the White House intends to cooperate and was glad to open channels of communication," said Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel.

Bloch said he and Fielding set up procedures that his agency would use to investigate the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails and the distribution of political information to Cabinet agencies.

Bloch's office, with 106 employees, enforces laws to protect federal whistle-blowers and prevent discrimination.

As we noted in the post below, today's LA Times is reporting that the Office of Special Counsel will be investigating scandals surrounding the White House political operation. We also promised more on the Office of Special Counsel and here it is.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), headed up by highly controversial presidential appointee Scott Bloch, is the wrong entity for this investigation. The fact that OSC has been charged with handling these matters suggests the possibility that the White House is orchestrating a cover-up of its illegal and improper activities.

Bloch has come under widespread criticism for his gross mismanagement and politicization of the office. Bloch is currently under investigation by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for his mistreatment of career appointees, who have alleged the exact kind of retaliation that OSC is designed to investigate. OSC employees have alleged that Bloch has tossed out legitimate whistleblower cases to reduce the office backlog. The probe into Bloch’s conduct has been stymied by the fear of OSC staff that speaking to investigators will result in reprisal. Prominent conservatives, who support Bloch in part because he adopted a sexual orientation policy that makes it more difficult for gay employees to allege discrimination, have called on President Bush to protect Bloch from the OPM investigation.

Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, issued the following statement about Bloch and OSC today:

Having transformed OSC into a virtual black hole for legitimate complaints of retaliation, Bloch is decidedly not the right person to tackle the issues of misconduct and illegality that surround top White House officials. There is a serious question as to whether Bloch will just provide cover for an administration that has been covering for him.

There is plenty to investigate at the White House. We're very concerned that Scott Bloch and OSC won't do the job.

UPDATE: We promised more on the Office of Special Counsel.  It can be found here. 

Today's Los Angeles Times reports that the Office of Special Counsel will be investigating scandals surrounding the White House political operation. We'll have more on the Office of Special Counsel shortly.

CREW is very familiar with several of these on-going controversies. Last month, our counsel, Ann Weismann, explained why political briefings by White House staff to General Services Administration (GSA) employees violated the Hatch Act. CREW also broke the story that the White House lost five million e-mails -- and we've outlined the fact that there are now two distinct e-mails scandals involving the White House. There is obviously plenty to investigate:

But the Office of Special Counsel is preparing to jump into one of the most sensitive and potentially explosive issues in Washington, launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove.

The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House.

First, the inquiry comes from inside the administration, not from Democrats in Congress. Second, unlike the splintered inquiries being pressed on Capitol Hill, it is expected to be a unified investigation covering many facets of the political operation in which Rove played a leading part.

"We will take the evidence where it leads us," Scott J. Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel and a presidential appointee, said in an interview Monday. "We will not leave any stone unturned."