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

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

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

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

Sarah Palin

AK Lawmaker on Trooper-Gate: "I Don't Think This Is Gonna End Quietly."

Zachary Roth | September 18, 2008, 12:05PM

The no-holds-barred effort by the McCain campaign and its Alaska Republican allies to bury the Trooper-Gate investigation at all costs may be bearing fruit.

Republicans have in recent days been calling on Democratic senator Kim Elton to reconvene the bipartisan legislative council with ultimate responsibility for the probe. And yesterday Elton told the Associated Press that he may do so, allowing for a vote on whether to delay the investigation or replace Democratic senator Hollis French as its manager.

The council, which contains 10 Republicans and four Democrats, had voted unanimously in July to launch the investigation. But many observers believe that, now that the probe could play a role in the presidential race, the committee's GOP members will vote to shut it down if given a chance.

Other recent developments confirm that the GOP is pulling out all the stops.

• Talis Colberg -- the Palin-appointed Attorney General who was directly involved in efforts to pressure the former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan over Trooper Mike Wooten -- said Tuesday that ten state employees would not honor subpoenas to testify in the case. Palin, of course, had originally pledged her office's full cooperation in the probe.

• A group of five GOP legislators filed suit -- with the help of a right-wing Texas-based legal foundation -- to stop the investigation in its tracks.

• The McCain campaign officially took charge of the effort, trotting out a hard-charging former federal prosecutor, Ed O'Callaghan, as its point-man on the issue.

• And the ADN reported today that Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, is no longer being paid for by the state of Alaska, but could not say whether the McCain camp was helping to pay his bills.

But the GOP's hardball tactics could end up doing more harm than good, by adding to the suspicion that Palin has something to hide.

In an editorial published this morning, the ADN accused Palin and McCain of "trying to ignite a partisan firestorm that wipes out the Troopergate investigation until after the election."

And the liberal journalist David Corn observed last night on MSNBC: "In the last few days the Republicans are treating this like its another Watergate and they better shut it down right way."

So: Where do things go from here?

Van Flein told the ADN that he'd likely decide today whether Todd Palin, who also been subponaed but is not a state employee, will testify, which would occur at a session of the Judiciary Committee tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the band of lawmakers struggling to maintain control of the investigation -- French, Elton, and their supporters in the legislature -- certainly aren't backing down.

Despite saying he might agree to GOP calls to reconvene the legislative council, Elton sent a letter yesterday to Colberg, the Attorney General, accusing him of going back on an agreement to allow the ten state employees testify. "Bluntly, I feel like Charlie Brown after Lucy moved the football," Elton wrote to Colberg.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat and French ally, told TPMmuckraker: "Hollis French has no intention of buckling under," and said that the same holds true of Elton.

The operation, Wielechowski continued, is "clearly politically driven by the McCain campaign."

"I've never seen an effort like this in this state to kill something," he added. "I don't think this is gonna end quietly."

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Topics: John McCain, Sarah Palin, Todd 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

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.

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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

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

Sarah Palin

Trooper-Gate: Everything You Need To Know

Zachary Roth | September 11, 2008, 12:14PM

The Sarah Palin Trooper-Gate saga has taken so many twists and turns lately that we decided it was worth taking a step back, to consider what we've learned to date, and what it might all amount to.

As regular readers of TPMmuckraker know, Trooper-Gate centers on allegations that Sarah Palin fired the former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner for his refusal to axe a state trooper who had undergone an ugly divorce from Palin's sister, and who was embroiled in a bitter feud with the Palin family. But as is so often the case when powerful figures are accused of wrongdoing, the effort to conceal what happened by Palin and Alaska Republicans, apparently with the aid of the McCain campaign, may be just as revealing as the original event.

The whole sordid tale started on July 13th, when the Anchorage Daily News -- which has been all over Trooper-Gate since the start -- reported that Walt Monegan, the state's respected public safety commissioner, had been fired without a clear explanation.

Read more »

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Topics: John McCain, Mike Wooten, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Trooper-Gate

Palin's Lawyer Investigates Trooper-Gate Investigator, Accuses of Bias

Kate Klonick | September 11, 2008, 11:45AM

The 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.

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

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.

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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

Sarah Palin

McCain Ad Cites Discredited Claim That Dems Sent Team to Dig Up Palin Dirt

Zachary Roth | September 10, 2008, 12:37PM

Yesterday, John Fund of the Wall Street Journal reported that "Democrats have airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage, the state capital Juneau and Mrs. Palin's hometown of Wasilla to dig into her record and background."

The story was quickly seized on by Republicans eager to portray a Democratic vendetta against Palin. Sean Hannity repeated it on Fox last night. And now the McCain campaign has released an ad that cites Fund's report, and depicts the Democratic investigators as wolves on the prowl.

There's only one problem: It appears not to be true. Within hours, the DNC's research director, Mark Gehrke, had issued a blanket denial, to The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, who reported: "'Not a single person from DC or Chicago has traveled to Alaska to do research,' [Gehrke] writes. Not a single Obama staffer, not a DNC staffer, not a hired gun, he says." Gehrke repeated that denial to TPM's Election Central just now.

And today, a DNC spokesman sent the following statement to TPMmuckraker: "Like most of what the McCain has been based on lately - this is another lie. A dishonorable and dishonest campaign spreading another lie."

The Obama campaign referred TPMmuckraker to Gehrke's denial. In addition, the chair of the Alaska Democratic party, Mike Coumbe, who has been in close touch with the national party since Palin was named to the GOP ticket, told TPMmuckraker that he has received no information from the national party or the Obama campaign that would support Fund's claim. That was echoed by another top Alaska Democratic Party official, Kay Brown, as well as other leading Democrats in the state.

Fund did not immediately respond to a call and email from TPMmuckraker requesting comment.

Late update: Fund tells TPMmuckraker that he stands by his story -- though he could not be specific about which Democrats he was referring to -- and will have additional information later today.

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Topics: John McCain, Palin's Press, Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

Wooten Says He Hasn't Been Contacted By Trooper-Gate Probers

Zachary Roth | September 10, 2008, 11:35AM

The Associated Press reports that Mike Wooten, the trooper at the center of Trooper-Gate, says he has not been contacted by investigators.

The independent investigator on the case, Steve Branchflower, has been on the job since around August 1st, and his contract runs through October 31st, though legislators overseeing the probe recently announced their intention to move up the final report's release date by three weeks.

Wooten told the AP he'd cooperate with the investigation if contacted. The AP also reported that former state public safety commissioner Walt Monegan will meet with investigators today.

The case centers on claims by Monegan that he was fired by Sarah Palin for refusing to fire Wooten -- a trooper who had undergone a messy divorce from Palin's sister and had become embroiled in a bitter dispute with Palin's family.

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Topics: Mike Wooten, Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

Judge: Bad-Mouthing of Wooten By Palin's Family Was "Form of Child Abuse"

Zachary Roth | September 10, 2008, 9:22AM

Newsweek reports that in 2005, a judge warned Sarah Palin and her family to stop disparaging Mike Wooten, the state trooper who at the time was undergoing a bitter divorce from Palin's sister and is at the heart of the ongoing Trooper-Gate investigation.

According to court records of the divorce proceedings obtained by the magazine, Judge John Suddock called the attacks on Wooten by the family "a form of child abuse." And an official with the troopers' union told the judge that he had received up to a dozen family complaints against Wooten. The official said he believed the complaints were "not job-related" and that Wooten was being "harassed" by his estranged wife's family.

And in his January 2006 order granting a final divorce decree to Wooten and Palin's sister, now known as Molly Hackett, Judge Suddock threatened to curb Hackett's child custody rights if her family continued to criticize Wooten. It appears that the judge did not ultimately limit those rights.

The Palins' alleged animosity toward Wooten is central to Trooper-Gate. The former state public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, alleged in July that he was fired by Sarah Palin, who was elected governor in November 2006, because he refused to fire Wooten from his job as a trooper. The state legislature has appointed an independent investigator to look into the matter.

Gov. Palin had at first pledged full cooperation with the probe, but since she was announced as John McCain's running-mate, that cooperation has ground to a halt.

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Topics: Mike Wooten, Sarah Palin

Todd Palin

Palin Fired Aide Who Dated Wife of Todd's Friend

Zachary Roth | September 9, 2008, 3:10PM

The Politico reported Friday that a longtime associate and former gubernatorial aide to Sarah Palin says he was asked to leave the governor's office after the Palins discovered that he was dating the soon-to-be-ex wife of a close friend of Todd Palin.

John Bitney, who grew up in Wasilla with Palin, told the paper cum website:

I wanted to stay with the governor and support the governor -- we're talking about someone who's been a friend for 30 years -- but I understood it, and I have no ax to grind over the whole thing."

Today, the Wall Street Journal added more to the story, reporting that seven weeks after publicly praising Bitney, Palin fired him for what her spokeswoman now describes as "poor job performance."

During that time, Palin had found out from Scott Richter, a friend of Todd Palin's, that Richter's wife, Debbie, was having a relationship with Bitney.

The Journal notes that Palin's office seems to have had trouble keeping its story straight on the reason for Bitney's departure.

At the time, the governor's office cited "personal reasons" for Mr. Bitney's "amicable" departure, according to contemporaneous news reports. Last week, Sharon Leighow, a spokeswoman for the governor's office, said "John Bitney was dismissed because of his poor job performance." She declined to provide further details.

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Topics: Palin's Hiring, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

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!

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

Sarah Palin

Palin, Aide, Have Same Lawyer

Zachary Roth | September 8, 2008, 5:29PM

We learned on Friday that seven witnesses last week cancelled their scheduled depositions in the Sarah Palin Trooper-Gate investigation. This came after Palin's lawyer asserted in a court filing last week that the governor would not herself testify unless the probe were taken out of the hands of the legislature.

But there's additional evidence of a centralized effort to protect Palin. Another possible witness in the case, Palin aide Ivy Frye, has hired Thomas Van Flein, the lawyer representing Palin herself. Asked by TPMmuckraker this afternoon about her role in the inquiry, Frye, described in news reports as a "special assistant" to Palin, responded: "You can call my attorney if you'd like," and named Van Flein.

Palin's office has claimed executive privilege on a group of emails sent this spring between Palin aides, including Frye. Van Flein did not immediately return a request for comment.

As for the seven witnesses who cancelled their depositions last week, we already knew that one of those seven was Frank Bailey, the Palin aide who was heard in a recorded phone conversation telling a trooper official that Palin was wondering why Trooper Mike Wooten -- the figure at the center of the case -- still had a job.

And on Saturday, the Anchorage Daily News reported the names of the other six:

• Annette Kreitzer, Palin's administration commissioner.

• Kris Perry, a Palin confidant who managed her gubernatorial campaign and now manages her Anchorage office.

• Nicki Neal, state personnel and labor relations director.

• Karen Rehfeld, the governor's budget director.

• Brad Thompson, state risk management director.

• Dianne Kiesel, a state human resources manager.

Update: When asked about the cancellation of his deposition, Thompson told TPMmuckraker, "no comment." The rest did not immediately return calls.

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Topics: Palin's Hiring, Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

AP: French to Remain As Probe Chief

Zachary Roth | September 8, 2008, 4:35PM

The Associated Press reports that Sen. Kim Elton, the head of the legislative council overseeing the Trooper-Gate investigation of Sarah Palin, has denied Republican efforts to have Sen. Hollis French, a Democrat from Anchorage, removed from his role overseeing the probe.

On Friday, Rep. John Coghill, a Republican, released a letter charging that French had politicized the investigation, and calling for his removal. And today, Rep. John Harris, the House GOP leader, told TPMmuckraker he supported Coghill's move, saying French had "overstepped his bounds," in talking about the possibility of impeachment for the govenor, and had created "more of a partisan situation." Harris also named Elton, a Democrat, as a possible replacement for French.

According to an associate of French, the Anchorage Democrat expressed concern over the weekend about his ability to effectively run the ongoing investigation, in the face of efforts by Republicans on the committee to challenge his control. Today's declaration of confidence in French by Elton could give French more room to maneuver.

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

More Wooten Footage

Zachary Roth | September 5, 2008, 5:47PM

CNN just aired a little more footage of their interview with Alaska trooper Mike Wooten, who's at the center of the Sarah Palin Trooper-Gate affair. Among other subjects, Wooten talks about Tasering his 11-year old stepson.

Check it out:

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Trooper-Gate

Lawmakers To Issue Subpoenas, But Not For Palin, on Trooper-Gate

Zachary Roth | September 5, 2008, 2:25PM

Despite stone-walling from Sarah Palin, Alaska legislators aren't backing down in their quest to uncover what happened in Trooper-Gate.

The bipartisan committee overseeing the investigation announced today in a press release that they're moving up the date that they release the results of their investigation by three weeks, meaning it should come out in early October. The commitee, led by Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat also announced that it would meet on September 12 to issue subpoenas in the case.

But according to the release, Palin herself will not be subpoenaed. The committee still holds out hope that she will talk to indepedendent investigator Steven Branchflower voluntarily.

"We also discussed and agreed amongst ourselves that no subpoena will be issued for the Governor," said
Representative Nancy Dahlstrom, R-Eagle River. "She has told the public that she intends to cooperate with
the investigation, indeed, she has told the public that she welcomes the investigation and I have every faith
that she means it. If necessary we can send Mr. Branchflower to wherever the Governor is, or she can give
her statement to him over the telephone, whatever is most convenient for her. We recognize that her
schedule is extremely busy, and we want to accommodate that."

French had initially indicated that subpoenas likely wouldn't be necessary, since Palin had pledged her full cooperation. But earlier this week, Palin's lawyer warned that unless the case were handed over to the state personnel board -- whose three members are appointed by the governor -- Palin would not be made available to testify. And according to the release: This week, seven key witnesses informed Mr. Branchflower through their attorneys that they would not provide depositions. Their depositions, which had been agreed to and scheduled earlier with Mr. Branchflower, were cancelled within the last 72 hours."

The case centers on allegations by former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan that he was fired because of his reluctance to fire a state trooper, Jim Wooten, who was divorced from Palin's sister and was embroiled in a family dispute with the Palins. Palin has denied her personal involvement in the effort to have Wooten fired, though emails from Palin provided Wednesday night by Monegan to the Washington Post show that in February 2007 she complained to Monegan that Wooten was still employed.

Speaking to ABC News, French accused the McCain-Palin campaign of using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing the results of the probe by October 31st -- just four days before the election.

The issuance of subpoenas will need to be voted on by the full Judiciary Comittee, which is composed of 8 Republicans and 4 Democrats. In late July, the Committee voted 12-0 to hire an independent investigator to look into the affair.

It's worth noting that the legislature doesn't have the power to compel witnesses to be deposed by Branchflower. Rather, it can require them to testify, under oath, at public hearings.

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Legislators Move Up Release Date For Trooper-Gate Probe

Zachary Roth | September 5, 2008, 1:30PM

ABC News reports that Sen. Hollis French will announce later today his intention to move up by three weeks the results of the Trooper-Gate investigation he's overseeing, which had been scheduled to wrap up October 31. French accused the McCain-Palin campaign of using stall tactics to prevent the results from being released by October 31.

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Topics: 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

Todd Palin

New Complaint Against Palin on Trooper-Gate

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2008, 5:40PM

Sarah Palin could be facing another investigation in relation to Trooper-Gate.

NBC News reports that the police officer's union of Alaska has filed an ethics complaint on behalf of Mike Wooten, the trooper who was embroiled in a dispute with the Palin family, and who the governor is alleged to have attempted to have fired.

According to NBC News:

The complaint alleges that the governor or her staff may have have improperly disclosed information from Wooten's personnel records. The complaint alleges "criminal penalties may apply."

The union argues that recordings of a phone conversation involving Palin-aide Frank Bailey -- released last month as part of the Attorney General's own Trooper-Gate probe -- suggested that Wooten's records were accessed improperly.

In response, the McCain-Palin campaign told NBC News that the files were not protected, and that Wooten himself had signed a waiver allowing a divorce lawyer to gain access to his personnel records. They added that Todd Palin, the governor's husband, was the source of information for Bailey, and that the information came from Wooten's divorce proceedings.

In other words, the McCain campaign is saying that Todd Palin gathered damaging information on Mike Wooten by looking through his divorce proceedings, then passed it on to an aide to the governor, who later used it to try to have Wooten fired. That may or may not be legal, but it doesn't exactly sound like the kind of ethical, reformist approach to government that Governor Palin claims to stand for.

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Ex Alaska AG: Palin's Legal Strategy is Bogus

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2008, 2:43PM

It looks like Sarah Palin's legal strategy in the Trooper-Gate investigation may not hold much water.

In a complaint filed this week with the state Attorney General, Palin's lawyer argued that only the state personnel board -- whose three members are appointed by the governor -- has jurisdiction over ethics complaints. The lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, asserted that unless the legislature's investigation were called off and the matter handed over to the personnel board, Palin would not be made available for her deposition.

But an expert we spoke to shot down that argument. John Havelock, a former Alaska Attorney General, told TPMmuckraker: "The investigative power of the legislature is plenary." In other words, the Alaska legislature can investigate whatever it likes. Said Havelock of Van Flein's argument "It's not likely to be persuasive to a court." That opinion was echoed by several other Alaska lawyers that TPMmuckraker spoke to.

Havelock, a Democrat, added that the legislature could voluntarily choose to hand over the investigation. But is has shown no sign of making that choice. Hollis French, the Anchorage Democrat who heads the bipartisan committee overseeing the probe, responded to Van Flein's filing by telling the Anchorage Daily News that the investigation would go ahead as planned.

It's likely, of course, that Van Flein's argument isn't designed to ultimately hold up on the merits, but rather to drag out the investigation. That impression was re-inforced yesterday when a lawyer for ex-Palin aide Frank Bailey abruptly cancelled Bailey's scheduled deposition. The lawyer today cited uncertainty over the jurisdictional issue as a reason for the cancellation.

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Fired Commissioner: Palin Hasn't Been Truthful on Trooper-Gate

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2008, 12:47PM

It looks like the figure at the center of the Trooper-Gate probe thinks Sarah Palin hasn't been entirely honest about her involvement in the matter.

Walt Monegan, the former Alaska public safety commissioner, told ABC News today: "I think there are some questions now that, coming to light about how transparent and how honest she wants to be," Monegan said.

Monegan also said, as he has before, that he believes he was fired because of his reluctance to fire Mike Wooten, a state trooper who was embroiled in a bitter dispute with Palin's family.

Palin has been caught out in falsehoods on Trooper-Gate at least twice before. She originally said that her administration didn't exert pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten, but had to backtrack after evidence emerged that contradicted that stance.

She also has claimed that she discussed Wooten with Monegan only in the context of the safety of her family. But yesterday, the Washington Post published emails from Palin to Monegan in which she expressed frustration that Wooten was still employed.

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Topics: 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

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.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (46) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (38)
Topics: Alaska, Bridge To Nowhere, John McCain, Palin's Hiring, Palin's Press, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Ted Stevens, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

New Emails Suggest Holes in Palin's Trooper-Gate Story

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2008, 8:49PM

Don't look now, but on the night of the biggest speech of her life, Sarah Palin's story on Trooper-Gate may be in the process of falling apart.

The Washington Post has obtained emails sent by Palin to then-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, which show Palin complaining about the fact that trooper Jim Wooten -- who was embroiled in a family dispute with the Palins -- was still employed. The emails don't explicitly show Palin pressuring Monegan to fire Wooten -- but they do appear to undercut Palin's claim said that she only ever discussed Wooten with Monegan in the context of security concerns for her family.

Here's the Post's description of the key emails:

"This trooper is still out on the street, in fact he's been promoted," said the Feb. 7, 2007, e-mail sent from Palin's personal Yahoo account and written to give Monegan permission to speak on a violent-crime bill before the state legislature.

"It was a joke, the whole year long 'investigation' of him," the e-mail said. "This is the same trooper who's out there today telling people the new administration is going to destroy the trooper organization, and that he'd 'never work for that b****', Palin'.)

This isn't the first time that events have appeared to contradict Palin's story about her role in Trooper-Gate. Palin at first claimed that her administration did not put pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten. But after a phone recording surfaced in mid-August of Palin aide Frank Bailey raising the issue of Wooten's employment with a trooper official, she was forced to acknowledge her office's involvement, though she has continued to deny her personal role.

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin

Palin Aide Dodges Trooper-Gate Deposition

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2008, 5:17PM

As if we needed another sign that Sarah Palin has decided to stonewall the Trooper-Gate investigation, ABC News reports this afternoon that lawyers for her aide Frank Bailey have cancelled Bailey's scheduled deposition in the investigation .

Bailey is central to the case. In phone recordings released last month as part of a parallel probe by the state Attorney General, Bailey suggested that Palin and her husband wanted trooper Mike Wooten -- who has been embroiled in a messy family dispute with the Palins -- removed from his job.

"The Palins can't figure out why nothing's going on," Bailey told a trooper official. "I mean he's declared bankruptcy, his finances are a complete disaster, he's bought a new truck. All kinds of crazy stuff. He doesn't represent the department well. The community knows it, but no action is being taken."

This is by no means the first instance of foot-dragging on the legislature's investigation from Palin's camp since she was announced last week as John McCain's running mate. In a complaint filed last night to the Alaska Attorney General, Palin's lawyer suggested that Palin would not be made available for her deposition unless the investigation was taken out of the hands of the legislature and handed over to the state personnel board, who's three members are appointed by the governor. Sen. Hollis French, the Anchorage Democrat overseeing the probe, has said that he is willing to issue subpoenas if necessary.

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Topics: Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin

Palin Wants Independent Trooper-Gate Probe Called Off

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2008, 10:09AM

In the latest sign that Sarah Palin's promised cooperation with the Trooper-Gate investigation is failing to materialize, her lawyer is now demanding that the entire case be taken out of the hands of the independent prosecutor hired by Alaska lawmakers, and given over to a state personnel board -- whose three members were appointed by the governor herself.

In an unusual "ethics disclosure" filed last night, along with related documents, to the state Attorney General, Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, asked the personnel board to look into the firing of Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner at the center of the case. Van Flein also asked the legislature to drop its own investigation, contending that only the personnel board has jurisdiction over ethics. And he suggested that if the legislature didn't agree to hand the matter over to the personnel board, Palin would not be made available for a deposition.

Sen. Hollis French, the Anchorage Democrat in charge of the legislature's investigation, immediately told the Anchorage Daily News that the probe would go ahead as planned. French has said before that he is willing to issue subpoenas if necessary.

"We're going to proceed. If they want to proceed, that's perfectly within their right but it doesn't diminish our right to do so," he said.

The case concerns allegations that Palin improperly pressured Monegan to fire a state trooper who was embroiled in a family dispute with the Palin family, then fired Monegan when he refused to axe Wooten.

Van Flein, whose fee is being paid for by the state of Alaska, also used last night's complaint -- released the night before Palin is to speak as John McCain's vice presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention -- to put out information intended to paint the trooper, Jim Wooten, in a negative light, as well as to undercut Monegan's claims that the governor pressured him to fire Wooten.

In the words of the ADN, the complaint contends that:

"Monegan never told the governor or Todd Palin that Wooten had been disciplined over complaints brought by the family that included tasering his stepson, illegally shooting a moose and telling others that Heath would 'eat a f***ing lead bullet' if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce."

And:

"Recently, Wooten's supervisor intervened when he wouldn't return the children after a visit, the complaint says. Wooten warned his ex-wife he was going to get her and Palin, the complaint says. 'There is evidence suggesting that Wooten was following the governor,' it says."

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Topics: Sarah Palin

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (12) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (11)
Topics: Alaska, Alaska Independence Party, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin

Sarah Palin

Palin Dragging Feet on Probe

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2008, 3:57PM

Since the announcement in late July that a bipartisan committee of the Alaska Legislature has hired an independent investigator to look into Trooper-Gate, Sarah Palin's office has consistently pledged to cooperate fully with the probe.

At first, that cooperation appeared to be forthcoming. Legislators announced in mid-August that they didn't expect to have to issue subpoenas, because the governor's office was being so amenable.

But it looks like all the happy talk is no longer operative. Judging from a report in The Anchorage Daily News today, Palin now appears to be pursuing a strategy of slow-rolling the probe.

Her lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, argued in a letter to the independent investigator Steve Branchflower that the case should not be even be handled by the legislature, but rather by the state personnel board -- whose members are appointed by the governor -- since it is "statutorily mandated" to handle ethics complaints. He also asked for all witness statements, documents and other materials collected in the course of the investigation. Perhaps most ominously, Van Flein wrote that the investigation is "bad timing", thanks to Palin's selection as John McCain's running mate, and that he couldn't guarantee that she'd be free to sit down for her deposition this month.

In a written response to Van Flein, Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat who heads the committee overseeing the probe, asserted that the legislature has its own power of investigation, and said that he has instructed Branchflower not to provide the requested documents. And French warned that if witnesses were not made available, he would issue subpoenas.

Van Flein and French escalated their war of words in the ADN.

"Our concern is that Hollis French turns into Ken Starr and uses public money to pursue a political vendetta rather than truly pursue an honest inquiry into an alleged ethics issue," Van Flein told the paper.

In response, French asked: "How does he explain the unanimous vote (to pursue the investigation) by the Republican-dominated Legislative Council?"

Later, French added, "It's too bad the governor has stooped to hiring a name-calling lawyer. That doesn't seem very open and transparent does it?"

The investigation is focused on Palin's alleged involvement in an effort to fire a state trooper who had had been embroiled in a bitter dispute with Palin's family. The state's former public safety commissioner has asserted that he was fired for failing to fire the trooper.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (20) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (14)
Topics: Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (183) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (120)
Topics: Alaska, Alaska Independence Party, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin

Jack Abramoff

Palin's Lobbyist Has Abramoff Ties

Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth | September 2, 2008, 1:01PM

It looks like Sarah Palin's claim to represent a cleaner brand of politics could be about to take a bruising.

The Washington Post reports today that, while Mayor of Wasilla, Palin oversaw the hiring of a lobbyist, Steven Silver -- a former chief of staff to now-indicted GOP senator Ted Stevens -- to help win federal earmarks for the city.

But Silver appears to have additional ties that could further undercut Palin's image as a squeaky-clean reformer. According to Senate lobbying disclosure reports examined by TPMmuckraker, from 2002 to 2004 Silver listed as a client Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig. On Greenberg's behalf, Silver lobbied the federal government on "issues relating to Indian/Native American policy," "exploration for oil and gas" and "legislation relating to gaming issues" -- the very issues that Abramoff headed up for Greenberg at the time. In other words, Silver appears to have been a part of "Team Abramoff."

Indeed, one specific bill that Silver lobbied on for Greenberg, according to the forms, was S.627, also known as the Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act. A former Greenberg lobbyist confirmed to TPMmuckraker that Silver would have been working to oppose the bill. And it was an earlier version of this very bill that Abramoff famously worked to spike, with the support of Christian conservative leaders Lou Sheldon and Ralph Reed.

There's additional evidence of ties between Silver and Abramoff. Emails released by a House committee in 2006 as part of a probe of Abramoff show the now-disgraced lobbyist scheduling a meeting with Silver in 2001.

Silver is a member of the Anchorage-based law firm of Robertson, Monacle, and Eastaugh, which the Post describes as having "close ties" to Stevens, and Alaska Congressman Don Young, who's under federal investigation for allegedly taking bribes. Since 2005, Silver has contributed $3500 each to Stevens and Young, according to campaign contributions records posted at CampaignMoney.com.

This is far from the first time that Abramoff's trail of corruption has led to Alaska. Last year, Mark Zachares, a former aide to Young, pleaded guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff in return for using his position to advance Abramoff's goals.

Silver did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (37) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (62)
Topics: Don Young, Jack Abramoff, Palin's Hiring, Sarah Palin, Ted Stevens

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

Sarah Palin

Palin Likely to Testify Soon, Under Oath, in Trooper-Gate Probe

Zachary Roth | September 1, 2008, 2:10PM

It looks like the special investigator in the Trooper-Gate case -- in which John McCain's surprise VP pick Sarah Palin stands accused of trying to fire a state trooper who had been embroiled in a bitter divorce proceeding with Palin's sister -- could soon uncover exactly what happened.

State Senator Hollis French, a Democrat and the chair of the bipartisan Senate committee overseeing the investigation, told TPMmuckraker that the independent investigator assigned to the case, Steve Branchflower, has contacted the Governor's office about having her deposed, and has received a response. French said that Palin's deposition would likely take place in the next few weeks and will almost certainly be under oath. "I think that's best," he said. French added that Branchflower does not expect to have to subpoena Palin, as her office has been cooperative thus far.

But that co-operation appears to have extended only so far. Her office has claimed executive privilege on emails requested by the state trooper's union in a separate civil suit*. But several Alaska lawmakers told TPMmuckraker Friday that those claims likely won't stand up, and that Branchflower should get access to the emails should he force the issue.

Palin had at first denied that her office was involved in the effort to have the trooper fired, but was forced to retract those denials when taped evidence emerged that a staffer in her office was involved.

French said he expected that Branchflower would play things pretty close to the vest with his probe, so we may not learn what he's found until he wraps things at the end of October -- just days before the election.

* This sentence has been clarified from an earlier version .

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Topics: Sarah Palin, Trooper-Gate