Our initial euphoria that Karl Rove would finally be investigated died down quickly when Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel, was revealed to be under investigation himself. Today's Los Angeles Times story on the OSC mentioned that Bloch has named Deputy Special Counsel James M. Byrne in charge of the three-pronged investigation. (Do read that story, Bloch is coordinating with Fred Fielding and finds him cooperative!)
I can't find much about Byrne. Bloch hired him as his Deputy OSC in February. One of the few items on Byrne as OSC has him rescinding Bloch's really stupid directive.
Join me on the flip - I think I may have found out who Byrne is. And plenty more linky goodness inside!
Scott Bloch was already under investigation by the Office of the Inspector General for acts of reprisal against his own staff, which is particularly galling when you learn that Bloch's office was responsible for taking reports from whistleblowers! Bloch had ordered that OSC staff who wished to meet with OIG investigators clear their meetings through his office. (I know, this stuff is so incredible it's hard to believe it's true.) Byrne rescinded that order and encouraged staff to meet with OIG.
Remember, Bloch's OSC is supposed to be investigating three different Republican scandals!
- Firing of David Iglesias (and possibly more US Attorneys): USAgate
- The five million missing White House emails: Emailgate
- What You Can Do To Elect Our Republican Candidate meetings at 15-20 Cabinet Agencies: Hatch Act Violations
There's very little mention of Byrne in Google. He's not mentioned recently on this site or over at Talking Points Memo. The Los Angeles Times story is the only news source (several blogs have reprinted it verbatum). There are a few slides from the OSC website showing that Byrne directly reports to Bloch and everyone else reports through Byrne. And oddly enough, the website has a few "Leadership biographies" which has Byrne conspicuously missing. (And I tried to look for a bio page with 'byrne' plugged in, no joy.)
With such a common name as James Byrne, I didn't think I'd have much luck finding out who he was before he turned into Bloch's buffer. But another search for "Deputy Special Counsel James M. Byrne" found this, The American Council on Germany's 2005 Annual Report, and looky here! There's a Lt. Col. James M. Byrne who is listed as:
General Counsel
Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
Department of Defense
Hmmm, could that be him? Is that why there's no biography on the OSC website? We already know what kind of people were sent to Iraq for reconstruction: young politicos who hadn't a clue what they were doing. Does that describe Jim Byrne? Can you find anything out about him? Why am I scooping Josh Marshall on even asking this question?
Update: Thanks to pb, who found a link to this excellent interview of David Iglesias by Chris Matthews on Hardball, we have our answer! James M. Byrne is a military reservist, and could very well be the Lt. Col. mentioned above. pb also found a link to SIGIR showing a James M. Byrne giving a seminar on Waste & Fraud in Iraq contracting.
Most interesting of all, that Hardball interview has Iglesias saying that he filed the complaint with the OSC and that he has a lot of respect for "Bloch's deputy." Iglesias filed Hatch Act complaints against AG Gonzalez, DAG McNulty, Kyle Sampson, and Monica Goodling, and he believes that it's Monica who has "the keys to the kingdom."
The Music Room will return this weekend, my apologies for going all investigative on you.