This story (and my first diary!) will probably get lost in today's primary mania, but it will be interesting to see what comes out of this breaking news.
I hear on NPR (link to NPR story) that the FBI is conducting raids on two offices of the Office of Special Counsel , one in DC and the other in Dallas, I believe. This apparently is the next step in a long investigation into the activities of the OSC's chief, Scott Bloch, and his staff. The developing story is on the WSJ site as well.
Here's a good description of the OSC, from a previous story on ABC News:
"The Office Special Counsel is an independent arm of the federal government that investigates and prosecutes illegal activity within the U.S. government. As part of its responsibilities, the OSC handles cases involving whistleblower protection, violation of workplace law such as abuse of funds or authority, and advises offices on proper separation of government and political activity."
And in that same story, you'll see that this is the agency who itself has been investigating Karl Rove to see if he or other administration officials were using federal agencies to help re-elect Republicans in 2006, in violation of the Hatch Act.
At the same time, today's events appear to be the culmination of a series of investigations about Bloch and the OSC's own problems with deleteing e-mails, squashing whistleblowers, and retaliating against employees. And, ironically, Bloch himself possibly violating the Hatch Act. This is one of those stories that get more and more muddy once you start digging into the different events, personalities and interests at play. It'll probably take another news cycle and a few hours of research to see how it all ties together.
But I can't help but think that Bloch is being taken out before he and the OSC can do any damage to Rove with that investigation. I suspect that, as of today, that case is now dead.