Allen, having been busted, shows up to work the following day. He knows he's got serious trouble and doesn't want it to blow back on the WH, as much as he can control the matter.

He goes to his boss--maybe Andy Card?--and says words to the effect of, "I'm going to have to resign. I got myself in a legal jam and it's not going to be pretty. I don't want you guys to suffer for my sins, so I'm leaving."

The WH, insofar as we know, received a call from a Maryland police department enquiring whether or not Mr. Allen worked there. They, of course, replied in the affirmative, the only answer they could legally give--and the only information they could provide.

Gov't offices--including the WH--get queries like this all the time. It can be for a gun permit or a mortgage, though I'll grant that the police rarely ask for mortgage purposes. But all of this is going on the Office of White House Personnel, not one of the political offices. No flags were necessarily raised.

Allen gets to walk out the door with "Attaboy Package #2" complimenting him on his selfless work, dedication, blah-blah-blah, "returning to the private sector for personal reasons," blah-blah-blah.

Some weeks later, Mr. Allen appears in the media as a very strange person with very serious (well, he's not a baby-raper, but he is Black and Republican, working in the West Wing!) legal problems.

Instant fodder for the Bush-bashing herd.

Since the story is at least a week old now, it's time for the "Outer Limits" crew to come in with fresh story ideas to keep the series going for a while longer. Cognative dissonance sets in through which some are seeking exoneration through Christian charity and mercy (protecting his twin!) by taking a major legal hit and somehow also sliming the WH in the process.

I suspect that Frater Ockham would go for the simpler story line: Here's a guy with good chops who also had some personal issues. He controlled those issues pretty well for a long time (at least long enough to get through FBI vetting), but under pressure or simply the passing of time, screwed up.

Of course the only difference is that in the TV show, the brother who took the fall was an ex-con, while the one who got off was the "clean-cut" brother who did not have run-ins with the law.