Frank Bailey

Frank Bailey provided the Trooper-Gate investigation with its "smoking gun" in the words of Gov. Sarah Palin. Bailey, the director of boards and commissions, was taped during a phone call to a state trooper's office inquiring about firing Mike Wooten. (Listen to the audio of the call here). Bailey appeared to be speaking for Palin. The governor's office said he had been acting as an independent agent. The information revealed in that conversation prompted the state trooper's union to file a civil complaint, saying that the information had been improperly obtained from Wooten's file. (The governor's office says the information came from Todd Palin, who found it using divorce proceedings. Palin placed Bailey on paid leave in August. In September, his lawyers canceled his deposition with the legislature's probe of Trooper-Gate.

Written and researched by Natalie Sherman