Bill Allen

State's Key Witness Set to Testify This Afternoon at Stevens' Trial

Kate Klonick | September 30, 2008, 11:23AM

Former VECO CEO Bill Allen, whose work on Ted Stevens' home is at the center of the senator's ongoing trial, is set to testify for the prosecution this afternoon.

Allen, who pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state lawmakers, has been the jewel in the FBIs crown, providing testimony in trials against many of the legislators he once paid for votes.

Stevens' attorneys have worked hard to try to disqualify Allen's testimony, demanding medical records for Allen and accusing him of receiving $40 million for his cooperation with the government.

Allen is expected to testify to the $250,000 worth of gifts and services he and VECO provided to Stevens, which included home renovations, a car, a new grill and interior furnishings.

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Topics: Alaska, Bill Allen, Ted Stevens, Veco

Ted Stevens

Construction Workers On Stevens' House Say They Worked For VECO

Zachary Roth | September 26, 2008, 3:27PM

At the center of the case against Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican senator whose trial opened this week, are renovations to his home that the prosecution alleges were paid for by the oil-services contractor VECO.

And today, four construction workers testified that when they worked on Stevens' home, they either worked for VECO or reported to its staffers.

On of the workers testified that Stevens' wife, Catherine, once brought them muffins. On Wednesday, Stevens' defense lawyer seemed to try to shift responsibility onto Catherine Stevens, by claiming that she was the driving force behind the renovations and handled the project's finances.

Stevens is charged with failing to report gifts, of a value of $250,000, on Senate financial disclosure forms.

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Topics: Alaska, Ted Stevens, Veco

Alaska

Alaska AG Files Suit to Quash Subpoenas

Zachary Roth | September 26, 2008, 10:55AM

The national press may have mostly left Alaska, but the legal maneuvering over Trooper-Gate continues. Yesterday, Attorney General Talis Colberg filed suit to throw out the subpoenas issued to witnesses in the legislature's investigation.

Colberg, who was a little-known assemblyman and private-practice lawyer until Palin tapped him for the AG job, argued that the Senate Judiciary Committee lacks the authority to issue subpoenas. Since early September, the Palin camp has maintained that the state personnel board, whose members are appointed by the governor, is the only appropriate body to conduct an investigation -- though that claim would appear to hold little water.

The list of witnesses currently defying subpoenas includes Todd Palin, and several of the governor's key aides. Nonetheless, the legislators running the probe have said that independent investigator Steve Branchflower will wrap up his report by October 11 and release a report soon after.

In response to Colberg's move, Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the legislature's probe, told the Anchorage Daily News: "For over 200 years, legislatures have exercised their right to oversee the activities of the executive branch. Denying us that authority undermines the basic democratic process."

A separate lawsuit filed by five Alaska legislators aims to stop the investigation, which was initiated by a 12-0 bipartisan vote, entirely.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

Ted Stevens

Opening Statements Start In Ted Stevens' Trial

Kate Klonick | September 25, 2008, 10:21AM

The trial of Sen. Ted Stevens has officially begun, with attorneys making their opening statements at 9:30 this morning to the jury of mostly white-collar professionals.

It has been just under two-months since the sitting senator was indicted on seven counts of false statements for allegedly lying on his financial disclosure reports on gifts he received from the oil pipeline company, VECO. Stevens demanded a speedy trial and attempted to have the case moved to Alaska in part to accommodate his ongoing re-election campaign in Alaska. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan complied with a quick court date, but declined to move the trial out of the jurisdiction in which the charges were filed -- Washington, D.C.

Among the witnesses scheduled for today, is John Hess, a former VECO engineer whose initials are on the renovation plans to Stevens' home, the Anchorage Daily News reports.

The star witness in the case is former VECO CEO Bill Allen. In attempts to discredit Allen, Stevens' attorneys have requested his medical history and recently alleged in court filings that Allen is receiving a windfall of $40 million for his cooperation with the case, a charge which has been disputed in subsequent filings.

Stevens own appearance on the stand has been the subject of much debate, with Stevens saying he intends to testify but will follow the advice of his lawyers.

We'll be bringing you updates throughout the day on this historic trial, so stay tuned.

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Topics: Alaska, Bill Allen, Ted Stevens, Veco

John McCain

McCain Camp Won't Talk About Ersatz Trooper-Gate Probe

Zachary Roth | September 24, 2008, 1:16PM

The McCain-Palin campaign is now refusing to answer questions about the one Trooper-Gate investigation they're cooperating with.

That's the investigation, of course, that's being conducted by the state personnel board, whose members are appointed by the governor.

Referring to the state's investigator, Timothy Petumenos, campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton told reporters Tuesday: "He has asked to keep things confidential, so we will respect those wishes."

The McCain-Palin camp's tight-lipped approach stands in contrast to its willingness to talk freely about the state legislature's independent investigation, which the campaign has refused to cooperate with.

In recent weeks, the campaign has sent a team of lawyers and PR pros to Alaska to badmouth the probe as politically motivated -- despite a bipartisan 12-0 vote to launch the investigation. McCain aides, including Stapleton, have publicly questioned the impartiality of Hollis French and Kim Elton, the Democratic legislators overseeing the investigation, as well independent investigator Steve Branchflower. They have disparaged the record of Walt Monegan, the veteran and widely respected former public safety commissioner whose firing is at the heart of the case. And they have argued that the legislature lacks jurisdiction to pursue the matter -- an argument that appears to have little legal standing.

It's also worth noting that CNN has been taken in a bit by the McCain camp's spin. The headline and lead two paragraphs of the CNN story fail to make clear that the investigation in question is the state probe -- which likely won't be completed until after the election, and is being overseen by state employees ultimately answerable to the governor -- rather than the independent investigation being conducted by the legislature. A CNN story from Monday fell into a similar trap.

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Topics: Alaska, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Bill Allen

Stevens' Defense: Allen Gets $40M for Cooperation

Kate Klonick | September 23, 2008, 5:43PM

Attorneys for Sen. Ted Stevens are doing their best to discredit Bill Allen, the former VECO CEO and key witness in the government's prosecution.

In documents filed yesterday, the defense claimed that Allen would receive a windfall of $40 million in return for his cooperation with the investigation.

"Defense counsel have recently learned that Mr. Allen stands to gain an additional $40 million of a total of $70 million in 'hold back' cash from the sale of Veco to CH2M Hill if he continues to cooperate with the government and if Veco continues to avert indictment," court documents filed Monday said.

But CH2M, the company that acquired the VECO from Allen, rebutted Stevens' attorneys' claims stating that the defense "misconstrues the terms" of CH2M's agreement with Allen.

From court documents filed today:

The principal purpose of the holdback, which is a common provision in the context of typical acquisition transactions, is to cover CH2M HILL for undisclosed liabilities, such as those relating to tax, environmental, and human resources.

Use of the holdback in connection with a breach of Mr. Allen's cooperation agreement or an indictment of VECO is available only upon a showing of damages, and then only in the amount of the damages resulting from the event.

The Allen family's right to the holdback funds is not conditioned, as the defense suggests, on Bill Allen's cooperation or VECO not being indicted.

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Topics: Alaska, Bill Allen, Ted Stevens, Veco

Alaska

AK Lawmakers Fire Back on GOP Bid To Shut Down Trooper-Gate Probe

Zachary Roth | September 23, 2008, 4:52PM

The Alaska lawmakers overseeing the Sarah Palin Trooper-Gate investigation have hit back at the GOP-led effort to shut down the probe.

Last week, Republican legislators filed suit to halt the investigation, arguing that it had been inappropriately politicized by Democratic senators Hollis French and Kim Elton. This afternoon, Peter Maassen, an attorney representing French and Elton, as well as independent investigator Steven Branchflower, announced in a press release that he will be asking a judge to throw out that lawsuit.

The press release points out that the investigation was launched in July after a 12-0 bipartisan vote of the legislative council. And it asserts that the original GOP complaints "suggest that Alaska legislators with open political views should be prohibited from participating in any legislative function that might -- might -- reflect badly on Governor Palin."

The release refers to "powerful and increasingly heavy-handed national interests" as being opposed to the investigation's continuance.

And in a bid to fight back against Republican efforts to remove French from his position overseeing the probe, the release adds: "The legislature is allowed to decide for itself what it will investigate, who it will employ as investigator, and which of its members will oversee the investigation."

Maassen is with the Anchorage-based firm Ingaldson, Maassen & Fitzgerald.

It appears all but certain that the investigaiton will go forward, and that Branchflower will release a report on or aorund October 11th, as scheduled. However, it's unclear how comprehensive the report will be, thanks to efforts by the McCain-Palin campaign to ensure that Branchflower won't be hearing directly from several key witnesses, including Sarah and Todd Palin.

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Topics: Alaska, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Ted Stevens

Stevens' Request to Attend to Senate Business Could Give Jury "Negative Impressions," Judge Warns

Kate Klonick | September 23, 2008, 11:32AM

With Congress working around the clock to stave off the collapse of the U.S. financial market, indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) doesn't want his constituents to think he's not representing them in the midst of crisis.

So even though Stevens is in a crisis of his own -- the federal trial to determine whether he failed to report over $250,000 in gifts and home repairs on his financial disclosure forms began yesterday -- he asked permission from the judge to be excused from courtroom appearances so he can attend to Senate business on the bailout.

Judge Emmet Sullivan warned Stevens and his attorneys that this might give the jurors the idea that Stevens didn't care about his trial.

"We don't want to have any negative impressions going on," Sullivan told Stevens, according to an article by The Hill. "People reach the wrong impressions for the wrong reasons."

From the AP:

Being absent as Congress considers a historic $700 billion bailout of the financial market could make it look like the corruption charges have made it impossible for Stevens to do his job.

Prosecutors didn't oppose Stevens' plan to leave court but they said Stevens shouldn't be able to use the crisis to cast himself as a dedicated senator in front of jurors. The judge said Stevens could leave court but jurors would not be told why.

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Topics: Alaska, Ted Stevens

Ted Stevens

Ted Stevens' Trial Begins with Jury Selection

Kate Klonick | September 22, 2008, 11:42AM

The trial of Alaskan Sen. Ted Stevens on seven counts of false statements begins today in Washington, D.C. Stevens, a seven term Republican, arrived in court this morning for jury selection. Opening statements are expected to begin either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning.

The trial, which Stevens requested be as speedy as possible, is expected to last a month, ending shortly before the election. Originally, Stevens attempted to have the trial moved to Alaska, to accommodate his campaign for re-election. The motion was overruled, but the judge has stated that the trial will recess for Fridays, to allow the sitting Republican time to return to the campaign trail in Alaska.

Potential witnesses in the trial include Stevens himself, as well as former-VECO executive Bill Allen. Democratic Senators Ted Kennedy (MA), Patrick Leahy (VT) and Daniel Inouye (HI), as well as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and former Secretary of State Colin Powell were also listed to jurors as possible witnesses this morning.

Stevens pleaded not guilty to making false statements on his financial disclosure forms relating to gifts he received from Allen for renovations on his home in Girdwood, Alaska, among others. Between 1999-2006 he accepted gifts from VECO, include substantial amounts of material and labor in his private residence. These allegations include addition of new first floor, new bedrooms and bathrooms, a grill, as well as failing to report other gifts, such as a $29,000 bronze statue of a fish. The total amount of gifts is valued at over $250,000.

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Topics: Alaska, Bill Allen, Ted Stevens, Veco

Alaska

Trooper-Gate: For Now, GOP Mission Accomplished

Zachary Roth | September 22, 2008, 11:22AM

As the flurry of news breaks over the Trooper-Gate investigation slows, at least for the time being, it's worth making a point that may have gotten lost in the shuffle:

The McCain-Palin camp appears to have been successful in its all-out effort to stifle the probe at any cost.

By preventing Steve Branchflower, the independent investigator in the case, from speaking with many of the key witnesses -- including Sarah and Todd Palin, and several of the governor's top aides -- the McCain campaign has severely limited the amount of information the investigation will have access to.

In the view of the Associated Press: "Although the Legislature's investigator still plans to issue a report in October, the probe is effectively killed until January, when Sarah Palin will either be vice president or return to the governor's mansion in Juneau."

That assessment may turn out to go too far. Branchflower has succeeded in questioning several of the witnesses, including Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner whose firing is at the center of the case, and John Bitney, formerly a top Palin aide. Branchflower also has access to the cell phone records of Frank Bailey, the Palin aide who earlier this year was recorded pressuring a trooper official about Mike Wooten. So it's possible that his report, even lacking input from crucial players, may yet prove damaging.

Palin may also pay a political price for her abrupt shift from pledging co-operation to out-and-out stonewalling. Over the weekend, the LA Times reported that Palin's "political capital at home is eroding," as a result of the hardball tactics used to stop the probe -- a subject we got into on Friday. If nothing else, her stonewalling -- along with the slew of reports about Palin's checkered record on seeking federal earmarks -- has significantly complicated the McCain-Palin campaign's effort to present her as a reformer who will help bring a more accountable form of government to Washington.

Still, it's hard not to conclude, at least for now, that the McCain camp has used its muscle to significantly limit the damage that Trooper-Gate could do to Palin. Which doesn't exactly bode well when it comes to the approach a McCain White House might take on issues of openness and transparency.

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Topics: Alaska, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

Alaska

French: Trooper-Gate Report Will Come Out on Schedule

Zachary Roth | September 19, 2008, 5:24PM

Despite Republican stonewalling, the Alaska legislature will release its report on Trooper-Gate on time, Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, said today. The report is scheduled to be completed October 10th.

None of the subpoenaed witnesses showed up to testify at a legislative hearing today. The McCain-Palin campaign, which has challenged the legitimacy of the investigation, had been actively working to ensure that the witnesses did not testify.

Steven Branchflower, the independent investigator conducting the probe, has already spoken with several witnesses. But it remains to be seen whether his report will be able to reach any definite conclusions without access to testimony by key players like the Palins and several top gubernatorial aides.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

John McCain

Palin Under Fire At Home For Trooper-Gate Stonewalling

Zachary Roth | September 19, 2008, 5:08PM

Over the last eight years, the Bush administration's approach to governing has been characterized by a reflexive penchant for secrecy, a willingness to stonewall legitimate investigations, and an aggressive media relations strategy, which sees the press as just another interest group, rather than as playing an important public function.

In recent days, the McCain-Palin campaign has doubled down on that same governing style in shutting down the Trooper-Gate investigation.

When Trooper-Gate first broke, Palin pledged full cooperation. But in the last week, the McCain-Palin campaign has brought in a high-powered ex-federal prosecutor and a team of communications experts to all but shut down the probe.

Essentially co-opting the office of state Attorney General, and working closely with Palin's own lawyer, the GOP operatives -- led by Ed O'Callaghan, a former terrorism prosecutor with the US Attorney's office in New York, and Megan Stapleton, a GOP operative who had worked on Palin's 2006 campaign for governor -- have ensured that many of the key witnesses subpoened in the case, including the Palins themselves, have refused to testify. (No witnesses showed up to a committee hearing today.) At daily press conferences, they've disparaged a respected former public employee, Walt Monegan, offering an entirely new line on why Palin fired him. They've made flatly false statements designed to paint the Democratic legislator overseeing the probe, Hollis French, as having overstepped his authority and as running a partisan witch-hunt. And they've aggressively challenged reporting that they've perceived as unfavorable -- in one case, as we reported yesterday, by phoning a reporter at home to complain about an accurate story.

There's little question that despite -- or perhaps because of -- these efforts, the tone of the Trooper-Gate coverage has grown noticeably more negative in the last few days. And Alaska-based commentators and bloggers have reacted with fury in recent days to the McCain-Palin camp's tactics.

In an unusually pointed editorial published yesterday, the state's most prominent newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News concluded: "Palin and McCain are trying to ignite a partisan firestorm that wipes out the Troopergate investigation until after the election."

And in an opinion piece published Tuesday in the same paper, conservative radio host Dan Fagan -- a frequent Palin critic -- referred to Palin's "transparent delay tactics," and argued that "Americans deserve to know what Palin is trying to hide before we vote her a heartbeat away from the leader of the free world."

Bloggers have been even more critical. One at Alaska Report, a liberal site that has tracked corruption in Alaska state government, wrote yesterday: "National political assassins have invaded Alaska. They were visible and in full force at the McCain-Palin press conference yesterday. Alaskans don't roll that way."

And another at Mudflats -- tagline: "Tiptoeing through the muck of Alaskan politics" -- added: "The damage that this stonewalling has had on Sarah Palin's 'image,' that the out-of-state lawyers and the McCain campaign were trying so fervently to craft, has yet to be measured."

There may be signs that the angry reaction to the GOP tactics has spread beyond opinion writers. Matt Zensey, the ADN's editorial page editor, told TPMmuckraker that letters to the editor had been running at somewhere between 60 and 66 percent anti-Palin in recent days.

"We are not alone among those who are taken aback" by Palin's abrupt transformation from a being an advocate of openness and accountability to stone-walling the investigation at every turn, said Zensey. "People are noticing the disconnect."

Zensey said that the take-no-prisoners tactics of the McCain-Palin PR team are not in keeping with Alaska's tradition of civil political discourse. "The 11-minute tirade that Megan Stapleton launched against Walt Monegan is something that was unfamiliar to a lot of Alaskans."

Zensey added: "The politics of personal destruction have come to Alaska."

Still, what ultimately matters is whether the dissatisfaction with Palin's about-face on Trooper-Gate filters into the broader narrative of the presidential campaign. Already, though, Democrats may being taking comfort in the fact that, in recent days, her national approval ratings appear to have slipped noticeably.

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Topics: Alaska, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Alaska

Palin Still Bad-Mouthing Trooper

Zachary Roth | September 19, 2008, 11:08AM

In his recent New Yorker story, Philip Gourevitch noted that even as Sarah Palin was arguing to him that she had fired Walt Monegan for other reasons, "she seemed to be saying something else--that her vendetta against Wooten was wholly justified."

And watching Palin's recent interview with Sean Hannity, we got the same impression.

Palin told Hannity: "This trooper tasered my nephew...that was...it's all on the record. It's all there. His threats against the first family, the threat against my dad. All that is in the record. And if the opposition researchers chooses to forget that side of the story, they're not doing their job."

Sounds like she still feels she had a legitimate beef.

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Topics: Alaska, Mike Wooten, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Todd Palin

Todd Palin Refuses to Testify in Trooper-Gate Investigation

Kate Klonick | September 18, 2008, 10:19PM

Todd Palin, who was subpoenaed just last week in the Trooper-Gate investigation, has said he will not testify.

From the AP:

Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. McCain-Palin presidential campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan announced today that Todd Palin would not appear, because he no longer believes the Legislature's investigation is legitimate.

Earlier this week, Talis Colberg, the Alaska attorney general wrote a letter to state legislators, informing them that the state employees who were subpoenaed in the investigation would not be testifying.

Initially, Gov. Sarah Palin promised full cooperation in the investigation, but has been increasingly opposed to the probe since she was named as the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

Late update: Todd Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, sent a letter yesterday to Trooper-Gate investigator Stephen Branchflower, informing him that his client would not be cooperating with the subpoena. The letter can be seen here.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

John McCain

McCain Press Aide Calls Alaska Reporter At Home To Complain About Unfavorable Coverage

Zachary Roth | September 18, 2008, 6:03PM

Here's a little more evidence that the McCain-Palin campaign is playing the hardest of hardball on Trooper-Gate -- especially in regard to press relations.

Jason Moore, a reporter with Anchorage-based KTUU-TV, just confirmed to TPMmuckraker that Megan Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign in Alaska, called his home to complain about one of Moore's news reports, and accused Moore of calling Stapleton and another McCain staffer liars.

Moore's report looked at the McCain-Palin campaign's "Truth Squad," an aggressive Alaska-based public relations campaign that's being led by Stapleton and former federal prosecutor Ed O'Callaghan and is designed to help thwart the Trooper-Gate investigation.

Moore reported that the Truth Squad was not always entirely truthful itself. He noted that Stapleton had said in a Friday press conference that it was Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, who had pulled one name, that of former Palin chief of staff Mike Tibbles, off the list of witnesses to receive subpoenas. Stapleton had pointed to this as an inappropriate political maneuver by French.

But in fact, Moore reported, it was GOP Rep. Jay Ramras, a McCain supporter, who took Tibbles' name off the list. Moore quoted Ramras saying so.

Stapleton and O'Callaghan have another "Truth Squad" press conference scheduled for 7pm EST tonight.

Moore told TPMmuckraker that he and Stapleton -- who was a press aide to Palin before eventually moving over to the McCain campaign -- used to work together as co-anchors on KTUU. "We're friends," he said.

When Stapleton called his home, said Moore, she reached Moore's wife, and immediately told her: "Your husband just called two Hoyas liars." Stapleton, O'Callaghan, and Moore's wife all attended Georgetown University, whose mascot is the Hoyas.

Moore added that Stapleton had also called the news director of KTUU to complain.

Asked whether he and Stapleton really remained friends, Moore allowed: "It hasn't been too friendly this week."

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Topics: Alaska, John McCain, Palin's Press, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Alaska

Trooper-Gate's Attorney-General Problem

Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth | September 17, 2008, 6:37PM

Earlier today, we learned that Talis Colberg, Alaska's Attorney General, is the latest figure to lend support to the GOP effort to stymie the Trooper-Gate investigation. Colberg sent a letter to Sen. Hollis French, who's overseeing the investigation, asserting that the state employees who have been subpoenaed to testify in the probe won't honor those subpoenas.

So it's worth stressing a point that might be getting lost in the flurry of moves and counter-moves: Colberg is no independent player in this case. In fact, he's a Palin appointee, who was personally involved in the effort to pressure Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to terminate Trooper Mike Wooten, and who has already led an investigation into the matter at Palin's behest.

When the legislature announced that it would hire an independent investigator, Stephen Branchflower, to look into charges that the governor had wrongfully terminated Monegan, Palin revealed that she had already requested that Colberg conduct his own parallel investigation. Colberg had begun gathering documents and evidence in late July, weeks before Branchflower had even begun his probe.

At the time, legislators raised questions about Colberg's involvement and the possibility of witness tampering.

"I think it is harmful to the credibility of the administration, harmful to the process and harmful to all the parties involved," Rep. Jay Ramras, the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee told the Anchorage Daily News. "It's just the worst possible thing to be doing."

As a result of new information uncovered by Colberg's investigation, Palin held a press-conference in mid-August and admitted that one of her staffers, Frank Bailey, had been tape recorded making a call to a state trooper's office, requesting the removal of Wooten.

And crucially, she also admitted that Colberg himself -- as well as Todd Palin -- had called Monegan and talked to him about Wooten. Thanks to these calls, Palin acknowledged, Monegan might have felt pressure to fire Wooten. Palin had previously denied that either she or her staffers had ever pressured officials to fire Wooten.

For a time, it appeared that Colberg had distanced himself from the investigation as a result of this conflict of interest. When Palin hired Thomas Van Flein to represent her in the case, Van Flein cited Colberg's call to Monegan as a reason why Colberg himself could not represent Palin. "The Department of Law had a potential conflict of interest, because Mr. Colberg, Attorney General Colberg, made contact with Mr. Monegan about Trooper Wooten," Van Flein said at the time. "That would make him a potential witness, and thus there's a potential conflict."

Last week, Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Barnhill -- not Colberg -- authored a letter threatening to quash subpoenas if they were issued by the state legislature. Bloomberg even reported that Colberg had recused himself from the investigation.

But in the light of Colberg's letter to French announced this morning, that no longer appears operative.

So in other words, Palin and her lawyer have admitted that Colberg, a Palin appointee, called Monegan and pressured him to fire Wooten, and that he has a clear conflict of interest in the case. And yet Colberg is still working to quash subpoenas issued in a bipartisan vote by the state legislature.

The attorney general's office did not immediately respond to a call from TPMmuckraker seeking to clear up the confusion.

Colberg's background doesn't suggest he's a figure with much independent clout
Before he was appointed attorney general by Palin, he was a little known assemblyman from the Matanuska Valley, in which Palin's hometown of Wasilla sits.

In an article Sunday in the New York Times, a family friend of Colberg described a conversation with him on his move from a one-room law office in rural Alaska to one of the highest offices in the state, supervising over 500 people: "I called him and asked, 'Do you know how to supervise people?'," Kathy Wells told the Times. "He said, 'No, but I think I'll get some help.'"

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

Alaska

Judge Rules Against Stevens Motion; Denies His Charges Violate the Constitution

Kate Klonick | September 17, 2008, 9:25AM

Indicted Sen. Ted Steven's (R-AK) most recent attempt to have his case thrown out, on the grounds that it violated the constitutional separations that prohibit members of Congress from being prosecuted for legislative actions, has been rejected by a U.S. District Judge.

From McClatchy:

[U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan] turned down Stevens' lawyers' request to throw out the seven-count indictment against the senator and said Tuesday in a hearing that if evidence arises at trial that looks as though it violates what's known as the speech-or-debate clause of the Constitution, he will consider barring it.

. . . Sullivan reviewed grand jury transcripts to determine whether witnesses were asked questions that would've violated the speech-or-debate clause, which limits what sort of evidence executive branch investigators can use when they probe acts by members of Congress. He said he saw a handful but that they were "in no way pervasive."

Stevens, in the midst of a re-election bid, didn't attend the court hearing Tuesday. However, he was in Washington at the Capitol.

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Topics: Alaska, Ted Stevens

Trooper-Gate

AK AG: Subpoenaed State Employees Will Refuse to Testify

Kate Klonick | September 17, 2008, 9:07AM

Less than a week after the Alaska State Senate Judiciary Committee voted to issue subpoenas in the investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin, those state employees who were ordered to testify won't be honoring the subpoenas, the Alaska attorney general said yesterday.

In a letter to Sen. Hollis French (D), who is overseeing the investigation, Attorney General Talis Colberg requested the subpoenas be withdrawn and spoke for the employees, stating their refusal to testify unless compelled by the full state Senate or the entire legislature.

From the AP:

Colberg, who was appointed by Palin, said the employees are caught between their respect for the Legislature and their loyalty to the governor, who initially agreed to cooperate with the inquiry but has increasingly opposed it since McCain chose her as his running mate.

"This is an untenable position for our clients because the governor has so strongly stated that the subpoenas issued by your committee are of questionable validity," Colberg wrote.

The legal action surrounding the investigation into Palin's firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, known as Trooper-Gate, has markedly increased since Palin was named the Republican vice-presidential nominee. When the investigation began just two months ago, Palin pledged the full-cooperation of herself and her staff.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

GOP Legislators Enlist Right-Wing Lawyers to Stymie Trooper-Gate Probe

Zachary Roth | September 16, 2008, 6:16PM

The GOP campaign to thwart the Trooper-Gate investigation cranked into even higher gear early this morning, with an emailed announcement by Anchorage attorney Kevin Clarkson that, on behalf of five Republican members, he is suing to halt the investigation. Clarkson argued in the email that Democratic senators Hollis French and Kim Elton, and independent investigator Steve Branchflower have inappropriately politicized the probe "in an attempt to unlawfully smear Gov. Palin." The Republican legislators behind the move are Representatives Wes Keller, Mike Kelly, and Bob Lynn, and Senators Fred Dyson and Sen. Tom Wagoner.

In addition, the GOP Speaker of the House, Rep. John Harris, released a letter today in which he asserted that what "started as a bipartisan and impartial effort is becoming overshadowed by public comments from individuals at both ends of the political spectrum."

And McCain staffers were all over the airwaves making a similar claim, and arguing that, as a result, the matter should be turned over to the state personnel board -- a request made originally by Palin's lawyer.

There's evidence of additional involvement by national Republicans in the effort to stymie the probe. Clarkson told the Associated Press he's working with the Liberty Legal Institute (LLI) a Texas nonprofit legal firm that's donating its time. The LLI is the legal arm of the Free Market Foundation, a conservative activist group that describes itself on its website as "the statewide public policy council associated with Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family." Dobson, of course, is a key religious right leader and GOP power-broker.

As for Clarkson himself, one veteran Anchorage attorney described him, in an email to TPMmuckraker, as "a religious conservative who is known for taking on politically charged cases that get his name in the paper," but added that he "is not a heavy hitter".

By all accounts, this particular effort to get the courts to stop the probe is unlikely to succeed, as few courts would be likely to want to intervene in the management of an internal legislative matter. But the move may be designed as much to create political pressure on French and his allies to back down or soft pedal the investigation.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (14) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)
Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Source: Sex Assault Program Cited in Monegan Firing Targeted Child Abusers

Zachary Roth | September 16, 2008, 4:58PM

So Sarah Palin's latest explanation for why she fired Walt Monegan is that he had gone over her head in seeking federal money for an initiative to combat sexual assault crimes, before she had approved the program.

But it now appears that the program in question is one that most elected officials would be wary of admitting they hadn't strongly backed. According to Peggy Brown, who heads the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Monegan wanted to use the federal money to hire retired troopers and law enforcement officials, and assign them to investigate the most egregious cases of sexual assault -- including those against children.

In other words, if Palin's new story is true, she fired Monegan for being too aggressive in going after child molesters.

ABC News reported yesterday that, although Alaska leads the nation in reported rapes per capita, Palin hasn't made the issue a priority as governor.

Monegan, however, appeared eager to change that. "He seemed to get the issue and really took it seriously," Brown told TPMmuckraker.

According to the Palin camp, too seriously.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Trooper-Gate: Palin's Shifting Stories

Zachary Roth | September 16, 2008, 3:51PM

There's a moment in a lot of political scandals when the contradictions and inconsistencies in the story being put out by the figure accused become so glaringly obvious that they themselves turn into an important part of the story. We may now have reached that point in Trooper-Gate -- especially as regards Sarah Palin's stated reasons for firing Walt Monegan.

A court filing made yesterday by Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, asserts that Palin fired Monegan as the state's public safety commissioner because of a series of instances of Monegan's insubordination on budget issues, including Monegan working with an Alaska legislator to seek funding for a project Governor Palin had already vetoed. This alleged pattern of "outright insubordination" is said to have culminated in Monegan planning a trip to Washington to go after federal funds for an initiative to fight sexual assault crimes, which had not yet been approved by the governor. (Van Flein's account was in sync with the line taken last night by a McCain campaign spokesman at a press conference in Alaska.)

The issue of Monegan's work on the sexual assault initiative doesn't come completely out of the blue. In a lengthy exploration of Palin's record on combating sexual assault crimes, ABC News reported yesterday that Monegan was the "chief proponent" for an "ambitious, multi-million dollar initiative to seriously tackle sex crimes in the state," and that Palin's office "put the plan on hold in July," just days before Monegan's firing.

But whatever the role of the sexual assault initiative in Monegan's departure from state government, this is by now the third substantive explanation given by Palin for that departure. And, to one degree or another, all those explanations contradict each other.

In this interview from July, Palin said she fired Monegan because she was dissatisfied with his performance on filling vacant trooper positions and on bootlegging and alcohol abuse issues.

Around the same time, she told The New Yorker, for a story published this week, that she hadn't actually fired Monegan, but rather had wanted to reassign him to combat alcohol abuse, and that he quit instead.

She said that one of her goals had been to combat alcohol abuse in rural Alaska, and she blamed Commissioner Monegan for failing to address the problem. That, she said, was a big reason that she'd let him go--only, by her account, she didn't fire him, exactly. Rather, she asked him to drop everything else and single-mindedly take on the state's drinking problem, as the director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. "It was a job that was open, commensurate in salary pretty much--ten thousand dollars less"--but, she added, Monegan hadn't wanted the job, so he left state service; he quit.

But the new line from the Palin camp is that Monegan was fired for his insubordination on budget issues, culminating in his effort to win federal money for the initiative to combat sexual assaults -- an explanation that neither Palin nor anyone around her had raised until now, two months after the firing.

That's by no means the only contradiction in Palin's story.

As we've explained before, Palin at first said no one in her office had exerted pressure to fire Mike Wooten -- the trooper who was embroiled in a bitter dispute with the Palin family. But after a tape surfaced of Palin-aide Frank Bailey raising the issue with a trooper official in a phone call, Palin backtracked and admitted that "pressure could have been perceived to exist," though she maintained that Bailey had been freelancing.

Similarly, she at first said that she had never contacted Monegan about Wooten except in the context of expressing concerns about the safety of her family. But recently, The Washington Post published emails sent by Palin to Monegan in which she expressed frustration that Wooten was still on the job.

And of course, Palin at first pledged total cooperation with the investigation. Now, through her lawyer, she refuses to testify, saying that the probe has been inappropriately politicized.

Update: According to TPMmuckraker's reporting, the initiative to combat sexual assault that Palin now claims she fired Monegan for trying to get federal money for, was designed to go after child sex abusers.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Palin Won't Testify in Trooper-Gate

Zachary Roth | September 16, 2008, 8:48AM

Sarah Palin is unlikely to testify in the Trooper-Gate investigation, according to a spokesman for the McCain campaign.

Speaking at a press conference in Alaska last night, spokesman Ed O'Callaghan argued that the probe had become "tainted." Palin's lawyer, and Alaska GOP legislators, have pointed to public statements made by Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation -- including that it could provide an "October surprise" -- as inappropriately politicizing the probe.

Palin had initially pledged her cooperation with the probe. After lawmakers voted unanimously to investigate her firing of former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan, she said: "We have absolutely nothing to hide, and so certainly we would never prohibit or be less than enthusiastic about any kind of investigation. Let's deal with the facts and you do that via an investigation."

But in recent weeks, that cooperation has ground virtually to a halt. In early September, her lawyer asserted that Palin would not testify unless the investigation were transferred to the state personnel board, whose members are appointed by the governor.

French and Steve Branchflower, the indepedendent investigator, have ruled out subpoenaing Palin, but had still expressed the hope that she would testify voluntarily.

Todd Palin was subponaed Friday. O'Callaghan said he did not know whether Todd would challenge that subpoena, though in a letter sent last Thursday, the state attorney general's office appeared to lay the groundwork for such a challenge.

The McCain campaign -- now clearly running the show on Trooper-Gate damage control -- also trotted out a new line to explain Monegan's firing. It released emails suggesting that Monegan alienated the governor's office by seeking federal money to go after sexual assault cases, even though the governor hadn't agreed that the money should be sought.

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Topics: Alaska, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

John McCain

A Bridge Too Far: McCain Falsely Claimed Palin Vetoed Earmarks

Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth | September 15, 2008, 6:49PM

Looks like the level of earmark bamboozlement coming from John McCain is even deeper than we'd known.

Speaking to reporters today, McCain defended his running mate, Sarah Palin, for lying about her opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere with the following claim, as reported by the Associated Press:

"The important thing is she's vetoed a half a billion dollars in earmark projects -- far, far in excess of her predecessor and she's given money back to the taxpayers and she's cut their taxes, so I'm happy with her record."

McCain had said a similar thing on ABC's The View Friday morning: "Earmark spending; which she vetoed half a billion dollars worth in the state of Alaska."

The notion that Palin "vetoed earmarks" has become a fully-fledged GOP talking point in recent weeks. Here, for instance, is Republican congressman Jeb Hensarling repeating the claim at a news conference 12 days ago.

But governors don't "veto" federal earmarks. As Palin's own gubernatorial spokesman, Bill McAllister, told TPMmuckraker: "She can choose not to submit the request, but once Congress makes them, they're there."

The provenance of McCain's half a billion figure appears to be related to this claim, which Palin made this morning during a speech in Colorado:

"Nearly half a billion of excessive spending in our state budget, that's what vetoes are for."

It's true, as the Boston Globe reported over the weekend, that as governor, Palin vetoed over $500 million in state legislative spending requests over two fiscal years.

But generic spending requests, which Palin rejected through the use of her line-item veto power as governor, aren't remotely the same thing as earmarks. As McAllister told us: "It's called line-items, generally. [Earmarks],that's not common parlance." And the money that Palin cut didn't come from the federal government, which is the starting point for the whole earmarks debate. So that $500 million figure has nothing to do with earmarks.

In other words, McCain has taken a statistic from one issue, and applied it to defend Palin's record on a different one -- under the assumption that the press won't look closely enough at the details to call him on it.

Ironically, an ad released almost two weeks ago by the RNC makes the necessary distinction between cutting spending through line-item vetoes, and cutting earmarks. It asserts that Palin "vetoed nearly half a billion dollars in wasteful spending and cut earmark requests by hundreds of millions of dollars." That latter claim refers to requests for pork made by the state to its congressional delegation, which did go down under Palin as compared to her predecessor as governor, Republican Frank Murkowski. But note that the half a billion dollar figure clearly refers not to the reduction in earmark requests, but rather to the cuts in spending.

And yesterday, Palin seemed to suggest that she was aware of that same distinction, remaining technically truthful, if misleading, by telling a crowd in Nevada: "We reformed the abuses of earmarks in our state. I vetoed nearly half a billion dollars of wasteful spending in looking at it as an executive responsibility."

But McCain hasn't been as scrupulous, either on The View or in talking to reporters today.

CBS News has already noted McCain's dissembling, after his appearance on The View. Will anyone else?

The McCain campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Topics: Alaska, Bridge To Nowhere, John McCain, Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

It's Sunny All Year Round at the Governor's Mansion in Alaska

Kate Klonick | September 15, 2008, 6:15PM

On the campaign trail, Sarah Palin likes to brag about how she put the Alaska state jet on eBay and fired the governor's personal chef. One item that doesn't appear in her stump speech, however, is the personal tanning bed Palin had installed in the governor's mansion.

This morning NarcoNews reported that that a tanning bed had been installed in the governor's official residence in 2007, sourcing a Department of Transportation employee familiar with renovations at the mansion. This evening, Politico's Ben Smith reported that Palin had paid for the tanning bed with her own money.

Now, Palin's own gubernatorial spokesman Bill McCallister has confirmed to TPMmuckraker that a tanning bed had been installed in the governor's official residence in 2007, and that it wasn't paid for with state funds.

"She paid for it herself," McCallister told TPMmuckraker. "It was surplus from a local athletic club."

The news of Palin's luxurious purchase -- beds can cost as much as $35,000 -- presents a sharp contrast to the blue-collar persona she projects on the campaign trail.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin

Trooper-Gate

Official at Center of Trooper Gate: Sarah Palin Lied to ABC

Kate Klonick | September 15, 2008, 2:33PM

Former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, whose firing is at the center of Trooper-Gate, says the Sarah Palin lied in her interview with ABC when she told Charlie Gibson that she dismissed Monegan based on poor job performance and said she "never pressured him to hire or fire anybody."

"She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," Monegan told ABCNews.com, "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."

According to Monegan, he met with Todd Palin in December of 2006, just two months after Palin had been elected to office.

From ABCNews.com:

"I was called to her Anchorage formal Governor's office to talk with Todd Palin about an issue that was a private family matter," recounted Monegan. Todd became "upset," Monegan recalled, when told the allegations had already been investigated and the case would not be re-opened.

"When Sarah later called to tell me the same thing, I thought to myself, 'I may not be long for this job.'" But, Monegan said, he stood by his position. "I held the public trust. As Chief, I was responsible."

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Topics: Alaska, Palin's Press, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Former Palin Backer: State Ag Director Job Was "Payoff" To Supporter

Zachary Roth | September 15, 2008, 12:57PM

In a lengthy investigation into Sarah Palin's hiring practices as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska published yesterday, the New York Times reported in its lede:

[W]hen there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, [Palin] appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

It's not just the Times that doesn't appear to think much of Havemeister's fitness for the job. Nick Carney, who ran the Division of Agriculture under Republican governor Jay Hammond -- and who later went on to help launch Palin's political career -- told TPMmuckraker that Palin's appointment of Havemeister was a "payoff" to a political supporter, that was "characteristic of how Sarah operates."

Carney described Havemeister, who he knows personally (Carney's daughter was a high-school classmate of Palin's and Havemeister's) as "a very nice gal," but added: "I don't believe that she really does have those kinds of skills," needed to run the agency.

It was Carney who first convinced Palin to run for city council in 1992 -- a fact confirmed by another source who was active in Wasilla politics during the period. A council member himself at the time, Carney told TPMmuckraker that he believed the council needed someone who represented non-business interests, which then dominated the council. But once Palin became mayor in 1996, the two fell out over a number of issues, including Carney's successful opposition to an effort by Palin to appoint to the city council two conservative supporters -- both of whom opposed recent council decisions to institute a sales tax and to start a police force.

Carney also shed some light on Palin's hiring of a city manager, John Cramer, to help her run Wasilla, a few months into her mayoralty. Though the hiring -- which Carney described as a first for the city -- added $50,000 to Wasilla's budget, Palin has defended the move in the past as necessary for the fast-growing exurb of Anchorage. Carney backed up that claim, but added that Palin's own shortcomings as an executive were also a factor in the council's support for the decision: Palin, he told TPMmuckraker, "had absolutely no management skills and couldn't manage the city on her own."

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Topics: Alaska, Palin's Hiring, Sarah Palin

Ted Stevens

Ted Stevens' "Trial By Ambush"

Kate Klonick | September 12, 2008, 7:21PM

The back and forth in the case against indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), continues with the defense filing a rancorous motion charging the prosecution with "trial by ambush."

In a hearing today, the two groups battled over documents and photos, specifically of the Stevens' residence in Girdwood, whose renovation lies at the heart of the indictment, and at one point conducted a length debate over the terminology best used to describe the property.

From the AP:

Defense lawyers indicated they will likely challenge some of the thousands of pictures the Justice Department took of Stevens' house in Girdwood, Alaska, a ski resort town outside Anchorage, which the indictment said the senator often referred as "the chalet."

"We think some were taken with wide angle lenses that distort the size of the home," said Stevens' lawyer Robert Cary, who noted that real estate agents often do the same thing to sell houses.

"It's a modest cabin in Alaska," Cary added.

"A modest chalet?" U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said.

Prosecutor Brenda Morris pointed out that the government didn't call it a chalet; Stevens did. "It was a modest cabin," but the work expanded it into a ski chalet, Morris said. "We didn't take any pictures to make it look more than what it is," she said.

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Topics: Alaska, Ted Stevens

Trooper-Gate

AK Judiciary Committee Votes to Authorize Subpoenas in Trooper-Gate, Including for Todd Palin

Kate Klonick | September 12, 2008, 3:40PM

The Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee voted today to authorize Trooper-Gate projector director Hollis French (D) to issue subpoenas requested by investigator Stephen Branchflower. The subpoenas are part of the continuing investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin, and include a subpoena for the testimony of the First Gentleman, Todd Palin.

Branchflower requested the power to issue thirteen subpoenas, including a request for the testimony of the governor's husband because he is "such a central figure" to the Trooper-Gate controversy, he thought "one should be issued for him."

The committee debated for over two hours, with Sen. Bill Wielechowski (D) pushing to keep politics out of the investigation and moved to pass the motion in the senate.

Exact wording of the motion from the Senate Records:

SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI moved:

Pursuant to AK 24.25.010(b), I move that you be authorized to issue subpoenas to the following individuals and for the following documents: Frank Bailey, Diane Kiesel, Annette Kreitzer, Nicki Neal, Brad Thompson, Michael Nizich, John Bitney, Ivy Frye, Kris Perry, Janice Mason, Todd Palin, Randy Ruaro, Murlene Wilkes; cell phone records for Frank Bailey for the period of February 1, 2008 through March 31, 2008. This authorization is contingent upon concurrence of the Senate President.

Passed 3 to 2.

Sen. Charlie Huggins (R) crossed the aisle, voting in favor of the motion, and joined Wielechowski in his plea to move the investigation forward.

"I see all this duck-foot action under the water," Sen. Charlie Huggins (R) said. "And I'm here, on a break from my moose-huntin' trip, to say let's just get the facts on the table. "

Sen. Lesil McGuire (R) attempted to amend the motion so that the subpoenas would not be issued until after the election. The amendment was voted down by Huggins, Wielechowski and French.

The House Judiciary Committee was present as well and voted unanimously in an advisory capacity in favor of allowing Branchflower to issue the subpoenas. The authorization of the motion is contingent on Senate President Lyda Green's (R) concurrence with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

Trooper-Gate

Alaska Leg. Holds Session Today, Considers Voting on Subpoenas in Trooper-Gate

Kate Klonick | September 12, 2008, 9:22AM

The Alaska state legislature's House and Senate Judicary Committees are meeting this morning in Anchorage to discuss the possiblity of issuing subpoenas in the investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin.

The move comes after the seven witnesses called to give depositions to the independent investigator Stephen Branchflower, suddenly cancelled their testimony.

Yesterday, senior assistant Attorney General Michael Barnhill wrote a seven-page letter to the legislature stating that "the eyes of the nation have now turned upon us," and that his office would move to quash the subpoenas if they were issued at the hearing today.

The meeting begins at 9 AM AKDT, or 1PM EST. We'll be listening by teleconference, so be sure to check back later.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Palin Approved Gov't Hiring for Friend and Co-Investor

Kate Klonick | September 11, 2008, 12:48PM

You'll remember that earlier this week we mentioned that Sarah Palin fired one of her aides, after she discovered he was having an affair with a close (married) friend of the family, Deborah Richter.

Bloomberg reports today that Richter is also an appointee of the Palin administration, and a co-owner with Palin on a land investment of 30 acres of property near a lake in Petersville, Alaska, worth about $47,000. Richter has only a year of college education, after which she's worked "bookkeeping and finance jobs" before serving as Palin's gubernatorial campaign treasurer. Not long after being made governor, Palin approved Richter's hiring as the "director of a division that distributes dividends to Alaskans from the state's oil-wealth savings account."

From Bloomberg:

"It sounds like a patronage deal for someone who ran your campaign; that's pretty normal,'' said Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington. ``What's not normal is that they have business dealings together.''

No evidence has emerged to suggest that laws were broken in the appointment, and Richter said she, "didn't go in there with any promises from the governor or the chief of staff or anybody. I turned in my resume'' to the governor's transition team "and I didn't know if anyone was going to call me.''

"She was qualified,'' said Pat Galvin, commissioner of the Department of Revenue and Richter's boss. Galvin said he also interviewed other people for the job and that Richter has done well. He said Palin's office approved his selection of Richter.

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Topics: Alaska, Palin's Hiring, Sarah Palin

Trooper-Gate

Palin May Quash Subpoenas in Trooper-Gate Probe

Kate Klonick | September 11, 2008, 10:05AM

The stand-off between Sarah Palin and the state legislators investigating Trooper-Gate threatens to continue, with the Alaska Attorney General's office saying it may "move to quash subpoenas" if they are issued by legislators in tomorrow's hearing.

From Bloomberg:

"The eyes of the nation have now turned upon us,'' senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Barnhill wrote. "We think there is a legitimate concern that this investigation is no longer being conducted in a fair manner.''

Barnhill complained in a seven-page letter about public comments made by Hollis French, a Democratic senator, that Palin or her aides may have broken the law by allegedly obtaining personnel files of the fired state public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan.

Just three weeks ago, Palin had pledged full cooperation with the investigation from her and her staff and had even requested that the state attorney general conduct his own parallel investigation alongside the probe commissioned by state legislators.

But in days following her nomination as vice-presidential running mate John McCain, Palin has hired a lawyer, and seven witnesses who had agreed to give depositions to an independent investigator, have all refused testimony. Allegations of politicization of the probe's legislative overseer, Hollis French (D), have surfaced after French told reporters they could expect an "October surprise" with the investigation's report on Palin.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Trooper-Gate

Palin Warned of Trooper-Gate "Wolves" by Ethics Adviser, Letter Shows

Kate Klonick | September 11, 2008, 9:19AM

Sarah Palin was counseled by an ethics adviser on the gravity of the allegations against her in the burgeoning Trooper-Gate scandal -- and encouraged to apologize -- letters reviewed by the Wall Street Journal show.

A former U.S. attorney, Wevley Shea, wrote two letters (pdf) to the Alaska governor, once in July and once in early August, stating that Palin's "'political advisors' have given you poor cousel; the situation is now grave. . . I am extremely concerned about certain 'wolves' if my recommended action is not taken immediately."

Shea gave the following recommendations to Palin in a letter dated July 24:

Apologize for not personally terminating Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan. Apologize for your statements regarding Commissioner Monegan in Press Release no. 08-125. Apologize, with Todd, for overreaching or peceived overreaching on Trooper Mike Wooten. Terminate any "state advisor" who addressed Trooper Wooten with Commissioner Monegan. Withdraw former Kenai Police Chief Chuck Kopp's name as Commissioner of Public Safety. Do not, in writing [as in Press Release no. 08-125], "define" the credibility of state employees.

Palin had previously commissioned Shea in late 2006 to co-write an ethics report recommending new financial-disclosure rules for elected and appointed statehouse officials.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (43) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (17)
Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

So What Did Palin Request in Federal Earmarks? Seal DNA Research!

Kate Klonick | September 10, 2008, 8:34PM

As we've mentioned elsewhere on TPM, Sarah Palin was not quite as conservative as she claims in her requests for earmarks. And here's a great example from just this year.

According to Alaska's 2009 catalog of earmark requests the state's sea life are in great need of federal money. As Politico points out, Palin's office requested $2 million in federal monies to study crab mating habits; $494,900 for the recreational halibut harvest and $3.2 million for seal genetics research.

Those requests for the study of wildlife genetics and mating habits seems pretty antithetical to the long-standig views of Palin's running mate, John McCain.

"We're not going to spend $3 million of your tax dollars to study the DNA of bears in Montana," McCain said earlier this year, referring to a request from Montana for federal money to study the endangered grizzly bear. "I don't know if it was a paternity issue or criminal, but it was a waste of money."

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Topics: Alaska, Earmarks, Sarah Palin

Ted Stevens

Stevens Loses Motion to Dismiss Charges; Trial to Begin in 12 Days

Kate Klonick | September 10, 2008, 4:42PM

Indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) might have handily won his primary, but he's not been so lucky with motions.

A judge ruled against Stevens today in his request to throw out the charges against him,

From Reuters:

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected defense efforts to dismiss the charges on grounds that only the Senate may discipline him for any violations of Senate rules and that the indictment was unconstitutionally vague.

Guess we'll be seeing Stevens in court on September 22, as originally planned.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (7) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)
Topics: Alaska, Ted Stevens

Sarah Palin

City of Wasilla Document Dump Muckraking Thread

Kate Klonick | September 8, 2008, 10:40PM

If you think you're hearing a lot about Sarah Palin, just imagine the poor folks over at the Wasilla City Hall, which must be why they set up a one-stop-shop for documents relating to their former mayor on their webpage.

We're looking through them now, but we'd love your help in raking. We've set up this thread for you to post to for items you find interesting. There are over a dozen documents, so in order to keep them straight we've devised a simple shorthand. To let us know which document you're referring to or quoting from, use the capital letters of the title of the document and the year (if there is one), and then the page number.

So a quote from page 6 of the "Certified Annual Financial Report -- FY2000" would be : CAFR2000:6.

The documents are here, good luck raking!

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (29) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (14)
Topics: Alaska, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Trooper-Gate

Trooper-Gate Trooper Breaks Silence

Kate Klonick | September 5, 2008, 12:30PM

CNN caught up earlier today with Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten, the former brother-in-law of Sarah Palin, who is at the center of Trooper-Gate.

Wooten doesn't appear to have spoken publicly since his name became the focus of the investigation involving the firing of Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, who claimed he was terminated by Palin after he refused to fire Wooten.

Wooten has been embroiled in a bitter dispute with the Palin family since a messy 2005 divorce from Palin's sister Molly McCann. In 2005, complaints were filed against Wooten to the state troopers which resulted in an internal investigation of Wooten. Thirteen charges were investigated and four were ultimately found to have merit. Those included charges that he tasered his 11 year-old stepson, shot a moose out of season, drove drunk in his trooper car and threatened to "put a bullet in [the] f***ing brain" of Palin's father.

Wooten received a 10-day suspension from the force as a result of the findings, which was shortened to 5 days after advocacy from the troopers union.

Yesterday, the troopers union filed an ethics complaint against Palin for improperly accessing Wooten's personnel record. In her defense Palin states that she received information on Wooten from the divorce proceedings, which Wooten had made public by signing a waiver.

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Topics: Alaska, Mike Wooten, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Palin As Reformer? Not Quite...

Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth | September 3, 2008, 8:53PM

As we get ready for the big Sarah Palin speech tonight, it's worth taking a moment to step back from the charges of negligent vetting and media sexism, to focus on what really should be the heart of the issue.

The McCain campaign has presented Palin as a squeaky-clean reformer, who took on corruption in Alaska, and will help to bring a new brand of politics to Washington. But a flurry of reports over the last few days significantly undercut that image.

To be sure, Palin's claims to be a reformer aren't toally without merit. Before becoming governor, she went after the state GOP chair, Randy Ruedrich, for doing work for the party on public time and working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. She also filed a formal complaint against Attorney General Gregg Renkes for having investments in an energy company that stood to benefit from a state trade deal. Both Ruedrich and Renkes ultimately resigned their posts, and Ruedrich paid a $12,000 fine.

But let's look at the other side of the ledger. Both as mayor of Wasilla and as governor, Palin has aggressively sought federal earmarks, and has a friendlier relationship with indicted GOP senator Ted Stevens than one would expect for a good-government crusader. She has fired employees who she sees as disloyal. And, in a move reminiscent of the Bush-Cheney White House, she has stonewalled legitimate efforts by the legislature to uncover the truth in the Trooper-Gate affair.

Here's a sampling of reports that complicate Palin's reformist credentials:

• Last year, Palin requested more earmarks per person than any other state -- including some that were criticized by McCain himself.

• Even as mayor of Wasilla, Palin's pursuit of earmarks was aggressive. She oversaw the hiring of a Washington lobbyist -- who, as we reported yesterday, had ties to Jack Abramoff -- to go after federal pork.

• And though Palin touted her opposition to the "Bridge to Nowhere" just last week in her debut speech, she initially supported the project during her run for governor. It was only after the bridge became notorious as an example of pork barrel spending that she changed her position.
• In her run for governor, Palin was endorsed by now-indicted Sen. Ted Stevens. Video of the endorsement has been removed from her government website, but the two appeared together just two months ago at a press conference on energy. The friendly relationship between the embattled senator, who is accused of lying about gifts he recieved from an oil contractor, and the supposedly maverick governor is at odds with Palin's claim to dismantling the "old boys club" of Alaska government.

• As Wasilla mayor, Palin reportedly fired the police chief and attempted to fire the librarian, because she did not feel that she had their "full support in [her] efforts to govern the city of Wasilla." Former city officials allege that the attempts to remove the librarian were a result of her her refusal to censor books at Palin's request.
• Palin has been at the center of the Trooper-Gate scandal that alleges misuse of her gubernatorial power. The affair erupted in July when Palin fired the Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Monegan later claimed his firing was a result of his refusal to fire Palin's former brother-in-law and trooper Mike Wooten. Palin denied that she, her husband or her staff ever pressured Monegan, a statement she later had to retract when recorded phone calls revealed one of her aides, Frank Bailey, had called a troopers office pushing for Wooten's removal.
• Tonight, the Washington Post published emails from Palin to Monegan in which she appeared to complain that Wooten was still employed, apparently undercutting her claim that she discussed Wooten with Monegan only in the context of the security of her family.
• As a result of the Trooper-Gate allegations, an independent investigator has been appointed by the state legislature. In recent days, Palin has appeared to stonewall the probe. Her lawyer argued in a complaint filed last night that she wold not be made available for her deposition unless the probe were handed over to the state personnel board, whose members are appointed by the governor. Bailey, who had been suspended by Palin with pay for his actions, today backed out of his deposition.
• In a separate civil suit related to Wooten, Palin has claimed executive privilege on over a thousand emails between her and her staff, including Bailey.
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Topics: Alaska, Bridge To Nowhere, John McCain, Palin's Hiring, Palin's Press, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Ted Stevens, Trooper-Gate

Alaska

AIP: We Were Wrong, Sarah Was Never a Member. . . But Todd Was

Kate Klonick | September 2, 2008, 8:00PM

Retracting past statements, the chair of the secessionist Alaska Independence Party told TPMmuckraker that they were mistaken in stating that Sarah Palin was once a member of their party -- but that her husband Todd, was.

"We searched for it everywhere, but we couldn't find anything to back up what we had been told by our source," Lynette Clark, chairman of the fringe third-party AIP told TPMmuckraker. "We made a mistake, but Todd definitely was a member of the party. We know that for sure."

Earlier today, TPMmuckraker posted that Todd was a member of the AIP party from 1995 to 2002.

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Topics: Alaska, Alaska Independence Party, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin

Alaska

Todd Palin Was Registered Member of Alaska Independence Party Until 2002

Kate Klonick | September 2, 2008, 3:25PM

The McCain camp today disputed rumors that presumptive vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was ever registered with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party by releasing years of voter registration history . . . but it looks like that doesn't apply to her husband.

This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.

Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.

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Topics: Alaska, Alaska Independence Party, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin

Alaska

Palin Hires Lawyer for Trooper-Gate Investigation

Kate Klonick | September 1, 2008, 5:20PM

MSNBC just reported that presumptive vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has hired a lawyer in relation to the Trooper-Gate scandal.

Alaska State Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Hollis French told TPMmuckraker that Palin has hired Thomas Van Flein, an Anchorage attorney at the law firm of Clapp, Peterson, Van Flein, Tiemessen & Thorsness. French said that Van Flein has already been in contact with him, regarding the ongoing investigation of Palin.

Van Flein has represented the Alaska Dental Society and according to a cached version of his firm website, specializes in professional liability -- including licensing issues, commercial litigation, appellate practice, and employment law.

From the AP:

Anchorage attorney Thomas V. Van Flein has requested a copy of all witness statements and documentary evidence from the Legislature's investigator, Stephen Branchflower. Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat, says he instructed Branchflower not to comply with the request.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Alaska

Anti-Establishment Palin Gained Political Know-How Working on Stevens 527

Kate Klonick | September 1, 2008, 4:43PM

The presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has made her albeit-short public service career on ending corruption and turning the Alaskan political establishment on its ear.

Palin has been vocal about not being more of the same in Alaskan poltics. "[Experience is] not what Alaska needed," Palin has said. "The state needed new blood in there. A candidate with new energy and new ideas."

But it looks like Palin got her experience working as a director at the 527 group from the oldest of Alaskan politicians, embattled Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).

From the Washington Post:

Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Ted Stevens