to the press, he retaliated against career employees by creating a field office in Detroit. He was removed as Special Counsel on October 23, 2008. He was subsequently found to have obstructed the investigation by removing material from his computer. He pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of Congress but then successfully withdrew his plea upon learning that he would be sentenced to prison. During the Bloch era, the OSC was criticized for (1) very rarely recognizing legitimate whistleblowers, typically only when the whistleblower had already prevailed elsewhere; (2) taking too long to investigate meritorious cases; (3) using a conservative litmus test in hiring; (4) discouraging federal whistleblowers from using their legal protections, and (5) generally siding with the federal administration instead of with the whistleblowers it was supposed to protect. On March 22, 2007, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (Democrat, Hawaii), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, held a hearing on "Safeguarding the Merit System Principles." In his opening statement, Sen. Akaka stated, "organizations that help whistleblowers claim that OSC has gone from being their first option for relief to their last choice since OSC no longer works with agencies to achieve informal relief and the percentage of corrective actions and stays has been cut in half since 2002." List of acting and confirmed United States Special Counsels Henry Kerner (October 2017 – ) Confirmed by the 115th United States Senate (voice vote) on October 16, 2017. He graduated from Harvard Law School and spent 18 years working as a career prosecutor in California. In 2011, he joined the staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the chief investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. Kerner was also the staff director under Ranking Member Sen. John McCain of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the lead investigative committee of the Senate. He left in early 2016 and joined Cause of Action Institute as vice president for Investigations. The group is a nonpartisan oversight foundation committed to exposing waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, which itself has worked with whistleblower and government groups throughout the country. Tristan L. Leavitt, Acting (September – October 2017) Adam Miles, Acting (June – September 2017) Carolyn N. Lerner (April 2011 – June 2017 ) – The United States Senate confirmed Carolyn Lerner as the 8th Special Counsel