Former Bush Special Counsel Wants A "Do-Over" On Guilty Plea

It looks like Scott Bloch, the former special counsel to President George W. Bush, may get his day in court, after all. The Legal Times blog reported Tuesday afternoon that federal prosecutors will not object to Bloch's request to withdraw his guilty plea to a misdemeanor contempt of Congress charge.

For Bloch, it's just another chapter in his strange, twisted, fall from grace.

At one time, Bloch was a rising star in the Bush administration, serving as counsel to the deputy attorney general before being appointed to head the Office of Special Counsel. Ironically, Bloch, who as special counsel was supposed to be an advocate for whistleblowers, will be remembered mostly for retaliating against his own staff and allowing hundreds of whistleblower complaints to be dismissed without any investigation.

Early on, he also decided that he was above the law, declaring that his office could no longer enforce a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation. But what did in Bloch—and led to his contempt of Congress charge—was his infamous decision to have Geeks on Call scrub his computer’s hard drive. Bloch, apparently with a straight face, insists he was trying to get rid of a computer virus and that the deletion of any incriminating evidence was purely coincidental.

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