Karl Rove And the Case Of the Seven-Level Wipe

As reported in today's Wall Street Journal, Special Counsel Scott Bloch, the head of the operation investigating Karl Rove prior to his departure from the White House (and still investigating other WH officials), is the subject of a federal investigation of his own.

Mr. Bloch has himself been under investigation since 2005. At the direction of the White House, the federal Office of Personnel Management's inspector general is looking into claims that Mr. Bloch improperly retaliated against employees and dismissed whistleblower cases without adequate examination.

Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year. They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said.

Bypassing his agency's computer technicians, Mr. Bloch phoned 1-800-905-GEEKS for Geeks on Call, the mobile PC-help service.

Bloch says his computer had a virus (apparently beyond the grasp of gummint techies), but the cyber-colonics he commissioned for his and his deputies' machines were a curious remedy.

Mr. Bloch had his computer's hard disk completely cleansed using a "seven-level" wipe: a thorough scrubbing that conforms to Defense Department data-security standards. The process makes it nearly impossible for forensics experts to restore the data later. He also directed Geeks on Call to erase laptop computers that had been used by his two top political deputies, who had recently left the agency.
...
The receipt says a seven-level wipe was performed but doesn't mention any computer virus.

Jeff Phelps, who runs Washington's Geeks on Call franchise, declined to talk about specific clients, but said calls placed directly by government officials are unusual. He also said erasing a drive is an unusual virus treatment. "We don't do a seven-level wipe for a virus," he said.

This one-hand-investigating-the-other situation of the Office of Special Counsel and the White House (via its oversight of the Office of Personnel Management) conducting simultaneous inquiries into the each other's activity seems ripe for conflict of interest.

Bloch agrees.

Mr. Bloch believes the White House may have a conflict of interest in pressing the inquiry into his conduct while his office investigates the White House political operation. Concerned about possible damage to his reputation, he cites a Washington saying, "You're innocent until investigated."

Indeed, if the OSC is investigating the White House, it seems a little dicey for the White House to then go probing at the head of the OSC.  Bloch's investigation shouldn't immunize him to review of possible criminal activity, of course, but in cases of reciprocal investigations, there will at least be the appearance of such conflict, specifically that the second party to initiate its investigation may be doing so in retaliation, scoring political points via Bloch's maxim, "You're innocent until investigated."

A downright cynic is then forced to view the activities and the assertions of that second party to initiate its investigation in light of those possibly ulterior motives.

There's just one problem.  The White House's investigation of Bloch predates Bloch's investigation of the White House by more than a year.