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Breaking: FBI Raided Obama appointee’s office.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  March 12th, 2009 at 09:57 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

(H/T Glenn) Did anybody have March 12, 2009 in the pool? Because if you did, Christmas just came early:

FBI raids office of D.C. CTO, Obama appointee

Federal agents this morning are searching the Judiciary Square office of Washington, D.C.’s Chief Technology Officer.

The search is part of “an ongoing investigation,” said a spokeswoman for the FBI’s D.C. Field Office, Lindsay Gotwin, said. She declined to comment further.

The outgoing Chief Technology Officer, Vivek Kundra, was appointed last week Chief Information Officer by the Obama administration. His last day at the city government office was February 4, a spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Leslie Kershaw, said.

[UPDATE] Actually, I am going to speculate as a motive: Kundra’s apparently very Google-friendly, and there’s some indication that Google may not be entirely beloved by this administration. Of course, a government Google crackdown theory would have to assume that one part of the government (the part doing vetting of officials) wasn’t talking to another part of the government (the part doing raids on offices), but really, how likely is that?

No, I don’t know why they raided the office, either – but I can speculate that it’s part of an ongoing investigation, it’s one that’s been going on for some time, that the Feds are about to go into endgame, and that it’s probably something to do with DC-area municipal corruption. I also am going to guess that Vivek Kundra is about to discover that he needs to concentrate on spending some more time with his family.

Also: that’s some vetting process that the Obama permanent campaign administration has, doesn’t it?  Very efficient: most administrations have a typical lag time of several years between confirmation of an official and his or her first legal probe.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • Swamp_Yankee

    what does Washington, D.C.?s Chief Technology Officer actually control or do. Anyway, didnt you hear? Bristol Palin broker off her engagement with Levi. Get with the real news!

  • andysmith

    …..or should I say “welcome to the Chicago way?”

  • Achance

    there wouldn’t have been a shotgun wedding, there’d have been a shotgun killing! Kids being as they are, she might have run away to see him, but she’d for sure have to run away because I wouldn’t have let him in my house and I gotta wonder why the Palins did.

  • http://www.phxgonline.com phxg

    the history of Obama’s vetting and all.

  • Old_Crow

    They should be hungry this time of year.

  • Swamp_Yankee

    I wonder how many times I’ll use this clip in the next four years:

  • Achance

    is five or six hundred miles north of Wasilla, which is six hundred and change miles west and north of Juneau. Long way to go for just one punk.

  • http://franklinslocke.blogspot.com/ franklinslocke

    First, Swamp_Yankee great post! That is hilarious and every politica dealing with Obama needs to take notes.

    Finding another person corrupt near this administration is no surprise. My question about the vetting process and the questionnaire everyone had to complete. What was on it, if all these people are getting caught?

    Example:

    Have you associated in any illegal activity? If yes, continue to next question. If no, you are disqualified.

    http://franklinslocke.blogspot.com/

  • Woody

    Reuters update:

    Obama official not a target in FBI raid
    http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1237208720090312

  • weave

    OK, this is funny…

    Headline from fark.com

    “Newest Obama appointee’s office raided by FBI. Left finally comes to terms that Obama is not Jesus. Jesus could actually build a cabinet “

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go on looking. MSNBC reports that the same official is being very careful not to rule out any change in Kundra’s status:

    The FBI vetted his White House appointment. If he had been thought to be involved in any corruption at that point, it would have been flagged, one official says. But, the official cautions, who knows where the investigation will go from here?

    Who knows, indeed. Especially when people start talking to avoid jailtime.

    But you keep telling yourself that you voted for the ethical guys, Woody. It does us no harm and keeps us amused.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …my wife sent it to me. :)

  • The_Gadfly

    Just to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest you know.

  • Woody

    Nice jab at the end there….

    I’m just for rational, civil discourse on both sides. We can sit and point fingers at junk blogs like DailyKos but then pull the exact same kind of rumor mongering. I can care less about the left/right eye scratching like your catty remarks about “my guys” (assuming they are “my guys” because I’m not for this Rush style discourse).

    Indeed “who knows where the investigation will go from here” is pure speculation.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Glad to hear it.

    Kid, get something straight. This is a partisan political site. Put it very bluntly: we’re right, you’re wrong, and if you were for “rational, civil discourse” you’d be over on dKos fighting the sinners of your own side. You won’t, of course, but let’s not pretend to noble motivations that you don’t actually have.

    I was then going to make you apologize for using language intended to demean my gender identity – and you a good little progressive, too; tsk, tsk – but I noted the spamcop.net email. Isn’t it that just like them?

    Blam.

  • Husker

    Kundra was placed on leave until further details of the case become known, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the official did not want to publicly discuss personnel matters.