Special Counsel Removes Potential Evidence with "DoD-Wipe"

A U.S. official overseeing a probe of former Bush aide Karl Rove yesterday refused to give federal investigators copies of "personal files" he deleted from his office computer, after it was discovered he hired a private computer-help company to erase all the hard drives belonging to him and two deputies. Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch hired a firm to perform a DoD-wipe, guaranteeing the files could never be restored. Bloch said he suspected his computer was infected by a virus - an unorthodox remedy. The receipt for the work performed makes no mention of a virus. Bloch refuses to turn over other files saved online and claims no documents relevant to any investigation have been purged. "We don't do a seven-level wipe for a virus," said a manager of Geeks on Call - the firm that was hired.