| This news isn't too surprising, since Bloch was charged with "investigating" charges of government wrongdoing and tended not to find anything -- Siegelman's alleged political prosecution is a natural for that kind of operation. The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) has this: POGO has gained access to an extraordinary internal document from the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency charged with protecting whistleblowers from reprisal. Clearly marked "DRAFT," it is a memo dated January 18, 2008, to Special Counsel Scott Bloch from the members of a special task force. The task force was created, according to the memo, in May 2007, "to pursue certain complex and high profile investigations, such as the firing of the U.S. Attorneys and the political presentations given by the White House Office of Political Affairs (OPA)." The stated subject of the memo is "Summary of Task Force Activities and Recommendations," but it reads at times like an anguished cry from investigators charged with an important mission but virtually every recommendation they make is countermanded by their boss. If they recommend going forward with an inquiry, Bloch says no. If they say they lack evidence or jurisdiction, he orders them to go forward.
Follow that link for a PDF of the document in question. The section on Siegelman is the lower half of page 7 and the top of page 8. Rove has his own section (page 12) too. For those who don't like to open PDFs, I'm putting a screenshot of the Siegelman paragraphs below the fold. The Task Force compiled the available information on the Siegelman prosecution plus Jill Simpson's affidavit and Congressional testimony, and developed an investigation plan. They were informed that the Special Counsel (Scott Bloch) did not authorize this investigation and requested that the file be closed immediately. According to the document, the Task Force did not close the file, but also did not continue the investigation and wanted to request authorization to continue the investigation. Close that file immediately? Imagine that. It looks like that's what happened with a lot of things this Task Force wanted to look into. Ben Evans of the AP has Don Siegelman's reaction: "The question is who told them to shut it down," Siegelman said Wednesday when told of the memo. "Why would you start an investigation and let it proceed and then shut it down? The logical conclusion is that somebody intervened and told them to shut down the investigation ... we need to get to the bottom of this."
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