White House Investigator Short on Funds

Back in April, Scott Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, announced that his office would “leave no stone unturned” in pursuing White House malfeasance. In fact, a special task force was assembled to handle all of Karl Rove’s alleged dirty doings.

Problem is, Bloch apparently forged ahead without actually having the money to fund the task force. And as Justin reports over at The Blotter, it’s not looking like he’ll be able to land that extra $3 million. So some of those stones might just have to stay right where they are.

Without a last-minute infusion of nearly $3 million, the special task force may be unable to pay its staff and buy the kind of technical equipment it needs to investigate allegations that White House political operatives may have improperly injected politics into government activities, according to Jim Mitchell, spokesman for the U.S. Office of Special Counsel….

The cost of the task force for 2008 would be $2.89 million, according to OSC estimates. But Bloch started the probe long after he submitted his 2008 budget request. And now he’s having a hard time convincing those holding the nation’s purse strings to loosen up and give him some last-minute extra funding.

The OSC is an odd creature — it’s actually a White House office, and the House of Representatives apparently told Bloch to go ask for the extra money from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. So now Bloch is in the odd position of asking for more money from the White House in order to fund this extra investigation. On top of all that, there’s certainly no guarantee that the White House will do anything if Bloch were to actually complete his investigation. Back in June, Bloch delivered a report to the White House that the head of the General Services Administration should be punished “to the fullest extent” (i.e. fired) for her politicization of the agency. It’s been radio silence from the White House since then. It seems likely that he’ll get the same response this time around.

As for why Bloch is getting the cool response from Congress, Justin points out that Bloch himself is under investigation.