Vivek Kundra Takes “Leave of Absence”

Vivek Kundra, the new CIO of the federal Government, a new position created by Obama, has taken a “leave of absence” pending more information about the FBI raid of his former offices of the CTO of Washington DC. For more details, see my post yesterday.

Caught in Bribery Scandal

From MSNBC here:

A senior White House official tells NBC News that the president’s choice to be the nation’s chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, has taken a leave from his position until further details become known of the FBI’s investigation into Kundra’s Washington, D.C. IT offices.

While the FBI has said Kundra is not connected to their investigation of a contractor that was under Kundra’s supervision, the appearance apparently is enough to force Kundra to take a leave from the White House.

First of all, the FBI just doesn’t announce that someone they are about to arrest is the target of an investigation.  Doing so usually sends the subject packing and fleeing to France.  Second of all, as reader toldyouso pointed out in the comments on yesterday’s post, Kundra’s signature was on each of those illegally crafted city contracts.  So Kundra knew that a single company was being shown favortism for contract awards.

This leaves Kundra in one of two unenviable positions: Inept in that he didn’t know what was going on, in which case he shouldn’t have a Federal level position. Or complicit in the crime, in which case he shouldn’t have a Federal level position.  He should just cut to the chase and quit now.