Memo Shows Frustration With Special Counsel

The memo also says the U.S. attorney firings probe found no evidence that the fired officials had been pressured to take actions meant to affect the 2006 election, the main issue over which the OSC has jurisdiction. The OSC staffers recommend suspending the probe until the Justice Department completed a related criminal investigation. When the Justice Department made such a request last May, Bloch said no.

The memo also addressed Bloch's demand for a new investigation into whether then-General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan had used agency resources to help GOP candidates. The authors said they had objected because the OSC concluded a similar investigation of Doan last year. In the memo, the staff "renews its recommendation that OSC close this case," the memo says. Doan was forced out by the White House last month.

In several other cases, the investigators wanted to open probes, but Bloch prevented them from doing so, according to the memo.

Last November, Bloch denied their request to look into a decision by Bradley J. Schlozman, formerly an acting U.S. attorney in Missouri, to seek indictments of four liberal activists for alleged voter registration fraud one week before the 2006 elections. Justice Department policy says prosecutors generally should refrain from such actions in the final stages of an election to avoid making the investigation a campaign issue.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the liberal group for whom the activists worked, had reported the alleged election fraud to authorities and was cooperating in the investigation. After Schlozman announced the indictments, the Missouri Republican party put out a news release attempting to link Democrats to the alleged wrongdoing.

"In view of the significant press coverage of these events, it could be perceived that the Office of Special Counsel was abdicating its responsibility to enforce the Hatch Act if we were to take no action in this matter," the OSC employees wrote in their memo. But Bloch has refused as recently as Nov. 14.

The career investigators also wrote of their long-standing desire to open a probe into allegations that certain Justice Department officials considered political affiliation in their hiring and promotion decisions. Bloch told them not to open one last August, then approved a limited investigation in November. In their memo, the staffers pushed for more.

"This document is just the most amazing thing I've ever seen," said Beverley Lumpkin, an investigator for POGO. "He creates a special task force to deal with these high-profile and complicated investigations, and then he doesn't listen to their advice."