Scott Bloch Says ... Nothing about Prosecutorial Politicization

by emptywheel

Say, remember that guy, Scott Bloch, who is running what looks to be a whitewash investigation of the USA Purge? Turns out, back in 2004, he wrote an article on how the Hatch Act governs prosecutor's offices. Yup, you heard that right. He even added it to his DOJ biography sometime between February and July 2005, just as Kyle Sampson was dreaming up large-scale political firings in the US Attorneys offices. So we can just read that article, right, to figure out what Mr. Bloch has to say about politicizing US Attorney's offices, right?

Only the article says nothing about specific prosecutorial activities that might violate the Hatch Act.

It starts off promising to tell you how the Hatch Act governs local prosecutor's offices.

As an employee of a local prosecutor’s office, what you do not know about your obligations under the Hatch Act may cost you your job, and it may cost the prosecutor a substantial financial penalty.

And the article does warn local prosecutors that they can't run for office unless they resign their position.

[A]n employee of a program at a DA’s office funded in part with a federal grant was covered by the act, and could not run for partisan office without resigning from her position or risking a funding penalty for her agency.

Now, presumably this focus makes sense--this is a warning for all the federal prosecutors out there that they can't just run to be DA while also prosecuting cases. Since it is fairly common for people to move back and forth between politically selected and apolitically selected legal jobs, this is a fair warning. But then Bloch teases us, promising to explain the other ways the Hatch Act limits a prosecutor's actions. He gives us the heading,

Covered employees may not use official authority or influence to interfere with or affect the results of an election or nomination.

Under which he provides several examples, none of which relate to prosecutorial decisions.

The use of an official position to benefit or to oppose a candidate in a partisan campaign is prohibited. For example, a city employee is barred from asking subordinates to support or volunteer their services to a political party or candidate’s campaign. Employees are also barred from interfering with election results through actions such as closing polls early when an employee’s preferred candidate is in the lead, or using authority over promotions and advertising on city property in order to benefit a candidate for mayor.

When he gets into any further examples of prohibited activities, none of them is pertinent to a proscutor's office. And while he provides a list of permitted activities, he does not provide a list of illegal activites. Basically, it's a warning for people not to run for political office. But it says nothing about the ways that prosecutor's offices, in particular, might violate Hatch Act provisions with selective prosecution.

Now, I'm not suggesting any malice with regards to this article. No doubt it is very common for a prosecutor to start campaigning to be DA before she quits her government funded job. But at least in 2005, Scott Bloch seems to have been blissfully ignorant of the possibility a prosecutor's office might do something--such as bring an indictment prematurely or spike an investigation--designed to affect elections in more nefarious ways.

Comments

[obsessed]

EW: Here's Novak recounting a long an adversarial history between Bloch & the Administration.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20425

Do you think Novakula is just trying to set up the con?

[freepatriot]

kinda answers the question in your previous post, don't it ???

shiny object

noticed that the words "lurita doan" don't appear in this guy's talking points either ???

seems to the Hatch act would be better applied in THAT case

but here we are ...

anybody else think kkkarl is trying to juggle too many chainsaws here ???

[freepatriot]

btw, ew, you should be "wireless impaired" more often

seems to me you post a lot more that way