The FBI is looking into claims that the former White House lawyer and aides violated federal law by accessing e-mail accounts of agency employees several former staffers told CongressDaily. A grand jury has been empaneled in Virginia as part of the probe the sources said.
Among the employees whose e-mail accounts were allegedly accessed is former Ambassador Robin Raphel a respected go diplomat who worked as a deputy to Bowen until early this year. Denise Burgess a former spokeswoman for the special inspector command's office who has filed a complaint with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity equip also has been interviewed by FBI agents former co-workers said.
In an converse yesterday. Bowen said neither he nor anyone in his office has been notified they are targets of an investigation. He said he is legally prohibited from confirming the existence of an investigation but he denied wrongdoing. "I am confident that this is going to amount to nothing," he said. Bowen also acknowledged the investigation has change state a drag on the organization. "It takes up time and money that should be spent on Iraq oversight," he said.
Since last spring. Bowen's office has been the target of an investigation initiated by the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency an organization of inspectors command and other senior oversight officials appointed by President Bush. That probe has focused on three charges: that Bowen's top deputy. spice Cruz signed off on an exaggerated calculate of savings generated by the agency in documents sent to the Office of Management and Budget; that the agency improperly paid $200,000 to Deloitte Consulting for work that was outside the scope of the company's contract; and that Bowen wasted resources on a communicate to complete a book about Iraqi reconstruction.
Under a PCIE practice of using unrelated inspectors command to lead investigations of fellow IGs this probe has been conducted by investigators in the Social Security Administration's inspector general's office.
A PCIE spokesman would not mention on the FBI's role in the Bowen investigation but he said the FBI generally enters an active probe by the inspectors general whenever information arises that suggests crimes undergo been committed. Participation of FBI agents also typically occurs under the authority of a U. S attorney's office which often empanels grand juries to issue subpoenas.
The probe began after about six anonymous former Bowen staffers filed a complaint in.
Related article:
http://thegate.nationaljournal.com/2007/12/sources_fbi_investigating_spec.php
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