The report cites numerous violations by the Bush-era White House Office of Political Affairs. Report: Bush staff violated Hatch Act

A long-running federal investigation has found that White House political aides to President George W. Bush engaged in widespread violations of a federal law which limits partisan political activity by government employees during the 2006 midterm elections.

A 118-page report issued Monday by the little-known Office of Special Counsel cites numerous violations of the Hatch Act by the Bush-era White House Office of Political Affairs. The report concludes that federal taxpayers footed the bill for improper activities that were intended to advance Republican political candidates.


“The entire [Office of Political Affairs] staff was enlisted in pursuit of Republican success at the polls and many OPA employees believed that effort was part of their official job duties,” the report concludes. “Based on the extent of the activities described below, OSC concludes that the political activities of OPA employees were not incidental to their official functions, and thus U.S. Treasury funds were unlawfully used to finance efforts to pursue Republican victories at the polls in 2006.”

Those efforts, according to the report, included assigning staffers to track “the amount of money raised at fundraisers held by Republican candidates and national, state and local Republican groups.”

Citing a “a systematic misuse of federal resources,” the report also points to Bush administration cabinet members who traveled to White House-targeted Congressional districts in what was called the “final push.” The inquiry found that although many of the trips were primarily political, they had been designated as official business, and the expenses were paid by the government.

The long-awaited report was released just a few days after the Obama White House announced that it plans to shutter its administration’s Office of Political Affairs and move some of the staffers there to the payrolls of the Democratic National Committee and a still-to-be-formed presidential re-election committee in Chicago.

An Obama White House spokesman had no immediate comment on whether officials there were aware that the new report was about to be released or on whether it influenced their decision to close the office.

While the report is unequivocal in its findings of legal violations by White House staffers and Bush other administration aides, the investigators also found that previous White Houses engaged in similar political activities. “The aspects of OPA that came in conflict with the Hatch Act during the Bush II administration have apparently existed for decades,” the report says.

A spokesman for former President Bush had no comment on the report.

In October 2008, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), then-Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, concluded an investigation into similar issues and recommended that the White House Office of Political Affairs be eliminated. The new OSC report notes Waxman’s recommendation, but stops short of declaring that the White House political shop should be closed.

The investigation into the Bush White House political office appears to have been delayed and sidetracked by the stormy tenure of Scott Bloch, the former chief of the Office of Special Counsel.

Bloch was the focus of both FBI and Congressional investigations into allegations of malfeasance, including his decision to hire private computer technicians to perform unusually thorough “wipes” of his work computer . He said he made the move because of computer viruses that had infected it, but investigators tried to determine whether Bloch wanted disk drives cleared to destroy evidence.

In 2008, the FBI searched the OSC headquarters in Washington and Bloch’s home in Alexandria, Va. Bloch resigned under pressure from the Bush White House in October of that year.

Last April, Bloch pleaded guilty to withholding information from the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee’s inquiry into the matter, a misdemeanor. He was expected to be sentenced to probation and a fine last year, but the magistrate assigned to his case, Deborah Robinson, said she believed the violation might carry a mandatory one-month jail sentence. His sentencing is now set for next month.

The report issued Monday came from the acting special counsel, William Reukauf. According to the agency’s website, he has been with the office since 1983 and was named as acting counsel after Bloch’s departure.

A spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel, Darshan Sheth, declined to comment on why the report took four years to complete or on whether Bloch’s difficulties had delayed the work. Violations of the Hatch Act can result in criminal charges, but sheth said his office had made no criminal referrals to the Justice Department in connection with the inquiry.