Reply #28: Emptywheel = Did Scott Bloch Spike the Doan Investigation? [View All]

Did Scott Bloch Spike the Doan Investigation?
by emptywheel - May 26, 2007 - http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/05/did_scott_bloch.html


You might remember the last installment of the Lurita Doan saga, where her claims to be distracted from Scott Jennings' political presentation by her crackberry were disproved by her own crackberry files. In that post I noted that the actions of the person who liberated this report and got it to at least the WaPo and the LAT had probably increased the chances of Lurita Doan getting fired for her Hatch Act violations.

I'll bet Doan and her lawyer are pissed this report got leaked--kudos to whatever person in OPC liberated this report, which was provided to at least the WaPo and LAT. As the report notes, only President Bush can implement the recommendation of the report, which is to fire Doan. Any bets on whether, by leaking the report, the chances are greater that Doan will actually be canned for her illegal political activities?

As it turns out, I was more right than I knew. You see, according to POGO, the version that got liberated was not the final draft. And there was at least one rather significant difference between the liberated version and the version now on the WaPo website. The new version concluded that:

Due to Administrator Doan's status as a Presidential appointee confirmed by the Senate, the President, and not the Merit Systems Protection Board, must make regarding imposition of disciplinary action. Therefore, ... the Special Counsel hereby submits this report of Prohibited Political Activity, together with any response of Administrator Doan, to the President for appropriate action.

Whereas the liberated version made a strong recommendation that Bush fire Doan. After reviewing that the law dictates that "a violator must be removed from her position," the report continues:

...............