Poetic justice. Rachel Paulouse, the Federalist Soceity doyenne who replaced one of the U.S. Attorneys fired en masse in 2006, has now herself been found to have retaliated against a subordinate. So, it wasn't enough that she benefitted from another attorney's ouster for his politics, rather than his performance. She then had to retaliate against a subordinate for doing his job.
This is significant because 1) the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has a tarnished reputation itself, due to the tenure of Scott Bloch, 2) they are not fond of "constructive discharge" claims, and 3) this is the only time in recent memory that I've seen a political (in every sense of the word) appointee singled out for committing an abusive prohibited personnel practice.
The complaint was filed by John Marti, and Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Minnisota. In April 2007, he alleged that Paulose demoted him from First Assistant U.S. Attorney (the #2 position in the office) to a staff attorney after he reported his concerns about Paulose's mishandling of classified homeland security reports.
OSC's investigation found that Paulose routinely left these materials--which addressed terrorist activities and possible terrorist targets in the U.S.--unsecured on her desk or on an open bookshelf in her office. Immediately after Marti reported her--as he was REQUIRED to do by Federal regulations and the Justice Department's own Security Program--she had him removed.
As a former Justice Department career ethics attorney ousted for political reasons, I am glad to see a shred of Justice for the legions of others so similarly trampled.