The FBI raided the headquarters yesterday of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that investigates political interference in the bureaucracy. The raid appears to be a dramatic next step in an Office of Personnel Management inspector general investigation into Scott Bloch, director of the watchdog agency. The New York Times’ Phillip Shenon reports that Bloch is accused of intimidating employees and deleting computer records.

While Bloch may have committed ethical violations, he has also uncovered them. The Office of Special Counsel found that Lurita Doan, former head of the General Services Administration, violated the Hatch Act, the law that bans partisan politics in the bureaucracy. Bloch had been in the midst of investigating other possible Hatch Act violations. But the future of those investigations—and the agency—is now up in the air.  Read Shenon here.  MB

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