Obama's CIO Once Pleaded Guilty to Theft

Vetting blunders don't get much more basic than this: Vivek Kundra, Barack Obama’s embattled Chief Information Officer, has a criminal record, Gawker’s Owen Thomas reports. Kundra, who’s currently suspended because of unrelated bribery charges against an employee, pleaded guilty to stealing less than $300 in 1997, according to Maryland state records. He was given supervised probation and a $500 fine, $400 of which was suspended.

Lest there be any doubts that this is the same Vivek Kundra, public records show the address listed on the court document as one of the DC info-tech man’s previous addresses, and press biographies say Kundra once lived in Gaithersburg, Md. Thanks to an arcane “probation before judgment” maneuver, Kundra might be able to say he was never convicted of a crime, but the record was there for Obama vetters to find. (More Vivek Kundra stories.)