Judge says jail for Bush whistle-blower protector

[Bozita]

Source: AP

Last Updated: February 03. 2011 9:32AM
Judge says jail for Bush whistle-blower protector
Nedra Pickler / Associated Press


Washington— The former head of a whistle-blower protection office under President George W. Bush must spend at least a month in jail, according to a ruling by a federal judge that could threaten to derail the ex-official's plea deal. Scott Bloch, who headed the Office of Special Counsel, pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of criminal contempt of Congress in April 2010. That plea, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson said in an opinion late Wednesday, requires a sentence of "imprisonment in a common jail for not less than one month."

She rejected arguments from prosecutors and defense lawyers that she has the discretion to impose a lower sentence and that other defendants who have pleaded guilty to the charge got probation, including baseball star Miguel Tejada last year.

Bloch admitted withholding information from House investigators about having private technicians "scrub" computer files used by political appointees at the Office of Special Counsel in December 2006.

Bloch was to be sentenced today, but Robinson postponed that until Monday because of her ruling. It's one of many delays in sentencing since Bloch's plea because of the jail time issue.

Read more: http://detnews.com/article/20110203/NATION/102030413/Judge-says-jail-for-Bush-whistle-blower-protector#ixzz1CuTf1COT

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. K R

[ck4829]

2. But Issa said that Obama is the most corrupt President in recent history!

Why don't we just want some "national healing"? :sarcasm:

[northoftheborder]

3. Jail for maximum sentence

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Finally. A judge who gets it

Now if we can only get the same action in Florida where they know employees who scrub public records and continue to get away with it.

[WhiteTara]

5. One month? That's all?

He was the head of a governmental agency and lied to Congress and all he gets is ONE MONTH? Wow. Some man is in prison for life for stealing bread. Martha Stewart got 5 months for lying to investigators and as ...oh I can see I'm going on a rant. you get the picture; I'm disgusted and angry.

[OnyxCollie]

6. Bloch had investigated Lurita Doan.

Doan had allowed the GSA to be used to get repub candidates elected, a violation of the Hatch Act.

Add to that RNC caging lists, FBI investigations of Dem candidates right before elections in swing states, a politicized DoJ, changes in the way the DoJ handled challenges to voter eligibility, and of course- HAVA.

For those keeping score, the authors of HAVA have:

Been convicted of bribery and corruption for deals with Jack Abramoff and sentenced to 30 months in prison- Rep. Bob Ney
Been convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering to get repub candidates elected, and have received a sentence of three years in prison- Rep. Tom DeLay (See also DeLay's ties to Abramoff.)
Run for President (poorly)- Sen. Chris Dodd
Business and financial ties with ES&S, the company that has a monopoly on vote counting in the US- Sen. Chuck Hagel

This is more than withholding information and scrubbing computers. This is covering up a conspiracy to undermine democracy in the United States.

[goforit]

7. just a pat on the back. Unbelievable!

[The Doctor.]

10. slap on the wrist... as allowable by law.

[alp227]

8. Robinson = a Reagan nominee

http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/dcd/robinson

Which explains the rather light sentence.

[The Doctor.]

9. K+R for a modicum of justice.

I wish there were people he could totally roll on.