Zachary Roth | February 10, 2009, 3:56PM

We just talked to an Alaska state legislator to get a handle on the news that Attorney General Talis Colberg, a key Sarah Palin ally during Trooper-Gate is resigning.

"The weight of Trooper-Gate finally got to him," said the lawmaker, a Democrat, who made clear that they weren't speaking from direct knowledge of Colberg's decision, but rather on the basis of involvement in the issue as a legislator.

The lawmaker said that Colberg's decision, during Trooper-Gate, to sue to quash subpoenas issued by the legislature to key Palin administration witnesses was now widely viewed as "a bad call." That move helped delay the witnesses' testimony, and limit its scope, meaning that the legislature's report on Trooper-Gate, released just before the election, remained incomplete.

"The advice he gave to members of the Palin administration not to appear was very bad advice," said the lawmaker. "He's gotten a lot of bad press over that, and so has the governor."

"You can't ignore a legislative subpoena," the lawmaker went on. "By doing so they had some short term gain ... now, the elections over and the chickens have come home to roost on that issue."

The lawmaker, who stressed that they wished Colberg well, and bore no ill will toward him, continued: "Everyone was caught up in the moment of the presidential election, and there were some political decisions that were made that people are ultimately regretting today."

The lawmaker said that after the nine witnesses, including Todd Palin, were found in contempt last week, many in the legislature publicly expressed the view that Colberg needed to answer more questions. Colberg had appeared before a contentious House committee, but might well have been forced to appear before the Senate as well.

"He's hoping that by stepping down, he'll be able to put the whole issue behind him," concluded the lawmaker.

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Talis Colberg, Todd Graves, Trooper-Gate, subpoena

Trooper-Gate

Palin's AG, A Key Trooper-Gate Ally, Resigns

Zachary Roth | February 10, 2009, 3:17PM

Talis Colberg, who was plucked from the obscurity of a small-town Alaska law practice by Sarah Palin to become the state's Attorney General, has resigned, reports the Anchorage Daily News.

Colberg, who had been a GOP assemblyman and Palin backer, was criticized during the Trooper-Gate scandal last fall for often appearing to represent the interests of his patron, the governor, rather than the Alaskan people. Although he himself had led an internal investigation designed to help Palin get out in front of Trooper-Gate, Colberg ultimately dismissed calls to recuse himself from any involvement in the matter. He then helped Palin stifle the probe into the matter by trying to block subpoenas, issued by the legislature, to state officials.

It's unclear as yet what prompted Colberg's move. He said in a statement:

I determined that it was in the best interest of the state of Alaska to move on and pursue other opportunities.

Something tells us there's more to this story...

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Topics: Alaska, Sarah Palin, Talis Colberg, Trooper-Gate, subpoena

Alaska

Stonewalling By Key Witnesses Proved Effective

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 11:37AM

The Trooper-Gate report provides an answer to something we were asking ourselves earlier this week.

It was announced, just days before Steve Branchflower was scheduled to wrap things up, that several top Palin aides would reverse course and honor subpoenas issued in the investigation, after resisting them for weeks. But would Branchflower, we wondered, have enough time to depose those key witnesses and include their testimony in his report?

The answer: no.

Branchflower writes:

On October 6, 2008 Attorney General Talis Coberg announced that some of the ... employees have decided they wish to honor their subpoenas and provide information about this case to the Legislative Council. Given that last minute decision, and in view of the publication date of October 10, 2008 for this report, it has not been possible to inculde any such information herein. It is anticipated that the additional information will be submitted to the Legislative Council in a separate report prepared by the employees and/or the Attorney General.

It's impossible to know what additional information these witnesses would have provided Branchflower. And he made clear that, even without them, he had enough information to draw firm conclusions.

Still, it's certainly plausible that with input from Palin's top lieutenants about the pressure they may have been under to pursue the Wooten matter, the report would have been even more damning.

In that limited regard, the Palin camp's stonewalling appears to have worked.

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

John Conyers

Conyers Tells RNC To Turn Over Documents In US Attorney Probe

Andrew Tilghman | August 7, 2008, 2:10PM

Once again, the House Judiciary Committee is trying to get the Republican National Committee to turn over a stack of documents for its probe of the firing of U.S. attorneys for political reasons.

The HJC's interest in the documents comes after previous Justice Department emails revealed that Karl Rove and his aides often used the RNC email accounts to communicate about the U.S. attorneys.

The committee subpoenaed the RNC for the documents last year. The RNC refused and the House Judiciary Committee chair, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), threatened the chairman of the RNC with contempt of Congress.

Today, Conyers takes up the fight again with a fresh letter to the RNC. Conyers reiterates the request and points to last week's court ruling when a federal judge dismissed the White House claims to blanket immunity from Congressional oversight.

Although the case did not address the RNC specifically, Conyers says the ruling gives the RNC no excuse for not complying with the 13-month-old subpoena.