Palin’s Lawyer Investigates Trooper-Gate Investigator, Accuses of BiasThe latest in Sarah Palin’s fight against the Trooper-Gate probe is buried in a story in the AP. Apparently, Palin’s attorney, Thomas Van Flein, is going on the offensive with the investigation, beginning his own investigation of the investigator, Stephen Branchflower:
According to internal documents in the attorney general’s office, Van Flein requested under Alaska’s open records law copies of all documents describing the hiring of Branchflower for the Troopergate probe, plus any “minutes, memos, notes and agendas” related to the investigation and e-mails among state lawmakers on the Legislative Council to Branchflower or French.The attorney general’s office said it did not have such documents and directed Van Flein to Alaska’s Legislative Council, the panel that approved the Troopergate investigation. Van Flein and Kim Elton, the head of the council, said no such further request was made.
Van Flein told the AP he was looking for any evidence of bias in Branchflower’s investigation, and sent two letters to Elton and Branchflower on Tuesday calling the probe “unlawful and unconstitutional” and calling Branchflower “seemingly biased” because of his past friendship with former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, whose firing is at the center of the probe.