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Once-Arrested White House CIO Steps Out, Then Back In

by Terrence O'Brien on March 18, 2009 at 01:27 PM

White House CIO Steps Aside Over 12 Year-Old Theft
Remember that new Chief Information Officer (CIO) that President Obama recently appointed? As was the case with many of the other seemingly ill-vetted appointees, it now seems like Vivek Kundra too has a couple of skeletons in his closet that almost stopped him from accepting the position for the newly created post.

As with Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, Charles Freeman, Ron Kirk, Timothy Geithner, and Bill Richardson before him, it looked like Kundra was going to have to step aside. This time, however, it had nothing to do with unpaid taxes. It looks like Kundra was arrested (though not convicted) on charges of theft back in 1997, and that some in his office are embroiled in a bribery scheme.

According to public records dug up by Valleywag, Kundra received probation before judgment (and a $500 fine, of which he only paid $100) for a theft of less than $300 in value. That information, along with news that Kundra had taken a leave of absence from his new post, started making the rounds on the Internet earlier this week and prompted many to assume that he would soon be gone. In fact, he had already taken a leave of absence relating to a raid by the FBI on his office last week that led to the arrest of two Washington DC officials.

White House officials confirmed to the New York Times that Kundra was quickly reinstated today after the FBI assured the White House that he was not a target of the bribery ring investigation and Virginia governor Tim Kaine called to argue on his behalf.

We're not terribly concerned over the theft charge, particularly since we don't know all the details surrounding the incident, but it does continue to raise questions about Obama's vetting process. We think Obama should turn to the Web that helped spur his election -- put his top five choices for appointments online and crowd-source the background check. Let the citizens of the Web do the dirty work for him and then vote on who should get the job. [From: ValleyWag and New York Times]

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Tags: barack obama, BarackObama, cio, crime, government, obama, politics, vivek kundra, VivekKundra, white house, WhiteHouse

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