The key finding of the new Trooper-Gate report is that the earlier report, conducted by the state legislature, erred in finding that Sarah Palin broke state ethics laws by pressuring subordinates to fire Mike Wooten.

The new report finds that:

The Branchflower Report ... states that violation of the scope of code provision may be based on the governor's inaction as opposed to the governor's affirmative acts.

...

But ... the Ethics Act does not require a person subject to its provisions to police the behavior of third parties who are not subject to its provisions. To find that the Governor violated the Ethics Act by failing to control her husband's behavior would require one to add language to the Ethics Act that does not exist.

In other words, Sarah Palin can't be held legally responsible for Todd Palin's actions.

It bears repeating: this was a report that Palin herself initiated, so, despite some other breathless reporting in the press, it's no surprise that it exonerates her. The only independent report into the matter found that she broke state ethics laws.

Walt Monegan told Steve Branchflower about what he was thinking directly after a meeting with Todd Palin, in which the "First Gentleman" had given him a stack of files about Mike Wooten's record, and had asked Monegan to look into whether Wooten had been appropriately disciplined:

Well, on the drive back as i was reflecting on the meeting -- drive back to the office, I was thinking that in essence they certainly didn't like the idea that Wooten was still employed. And they wanted severe discipline, probably termination, and that -- and if this was going to build, I had this kind of ominous feeling that I may not be long for this job if I -- if I didn't somehow respond accordingly.

Here's a key excerpt from the Trooper-Gate report about the nature of Sarah Palin's abuse of power, in regard to her failure to rein in her husband's efforts to pressure state employees to fire Mike Wooten:

[Sarah Palin] had the authority and power to require Mr. Palin to cease contacting subordinates, but she failed to act.

Such impermissible and repeated contacts create conflicts of interests for subordinate employees, who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superior's displeasure and the possible consequences of such displeasure. This was one of the very reasons the Ethics Act was promulgated by the Legislature.

Here's a funny note on the airs that the Palin administration appears to have put on after coming into office.

Monegan's secretary told Branchflower that she received a call in December 2006 from a Palin aide, asking to set up a meeting between Monegan and "the First Gentleman."

"At that time." said the secretary, "I was not familar with the term 'First Gentleman'...so I kept asking her 'who?', and eventually she said, 'Todd Palin,' and I said, 'oh okay.'"

The report reveals that four days after Sarah Palin was elected governor in November 2006, Todd Palin called John Glass, who was then the chief of the Wasilla Police Department and shortly afterwards became a deputy public safety commissioner for the state, working under Walt Monegan.

There were two vacant spots on the Wasilla PD at the time. Todd Palin told Glass that he did not want Wooten hired as a Wasilla officer, and that he should be fired as a state trooper.

Wooten was not hired by Glass.

So today's the day for Steve Branchflower to release his report into Trooper-Gate to the Alaska legislative council.

But it's worth pointing out that, thanks to GOP resistance, Branchflower's findings may not be made public today.

The legislative council will meet in private at 1pm EST to receive a briefing from Branchflower on his findings. The council will then vote on whether to make the 253-page report public. The legislators, who have already picked up copies of the report, have signed confidentiality agreements promising not to show anyone, including their staff, unless authorized to do so by a vote of the council.

It's by no means clear which way that vote will go. The council comprises 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats. It had voted unanimously in July to launch the investigation, but since Governor Palin was named as John McCain's running mate, many Republican members of the legislature have fallen into line behind the McCain camp's effort to quash the probe. Last month, Rep. John Coghill, a Republican from North Pole who is on the council, charged that the investigation had been inappropriately politicized and called for the removal of Sen. Hollis French, the Anchorage Democrat running the probe. And shortly after, six GOP legislators filed suit to halt the investigation entirely. (The suit was dismissed yesterday by the state Supreme Court.)

The Anchorage Daily News also reports:

Branchflower also produced a separate volume, roughly twice as large as his report, that's expected to remain confidential because it contains exhibits with personnel information that cannot legally be released, according to legislative council staff.

Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, tried to preemptively discredit the report, telling the ADN that it won't be comprehensive because Branchflower didn't interview Palin or her chief of staff, Mike Tibbles.

"They didn't even try to interview the governor. You want to know why she reassigned Monegan, it would be nice to talk to her. They didn't even try," Van Flein said. "It's a report that's going to be half-done at best. And anything that's half-done will likely be half-baked."

In response, Hollis French told the paper that he wrote a letter to Van Flein last month asking to set up the interview.

In addition, the New York Times has new details on the pressure that was brought by Palin's office on Walt Monegan in regard to Mike Wooten, the trooper who was embroiled in a bitter family dispute with the Palins.

It reports:

In all, the commissioner and his aides were contacted about Trooper Wooten three dozen times over 19 months by the governor, her husband and seven administration officials, interviews and documents show.

In one of those instances, Monegan received a call from an aide to Palin, who was concerned that Wooten was assigned to work at a state fair the governor planned to attend. Wooten, says the paper, "had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds -- in full costume as "Safety Bear," the troopers' child-friendly mascot."

The McCain-Palin campaign, with an eye on the possible release today of the Alaska legislature's report on Trooper-Gate, last night unveiled its own "report" into the matter. And guess what? It clears Sarah Palin of any wrongdoing!

Campaign officials wrote:

The following document will prove Walt Monegan's dismissal was a result of his insubordination and budgetary clashes with Governor Palin and her administration. Trooper Wooten is a separate issue.

The use of the word "dismissal" is noteworthy. Lately, the campaign had seemed to settle on the story that Monegan was not dismissed, but rather was asked to take a new assignment, and quit instead of doing so. Todd Palin told the same thing in written answers to Steve Branchflower, the legislature's investigator, according to news reports yesterday.

The campaign's report blames Andrew Halcro, a blogger and political rival of Governor Palin, for conspiring with Jim Wooten -- the trooper whose ongoing dispute with the Palin family is at the center of the affair -- to make it appear that Palin fired public safety commissioner Walt Monegan because Monegan refused to fire Wooten.

Todd Palin spoke to over a dozen state officials, both before and after his wife became governor, in his effort to get state trooper Mike Wooten fired. But he says he never pressured Walt Monegan to remove Wooten.

That's what Todd Palin told independent investigator Steve Branchflower, according to a sworn affidavit released to reporters by the McCain campaign and Palins' lawyer.

In his statement, Todd Palin made clear that he carried a grudge against Wooten, a state trooper who was embroiled in a family dispute with the Palins, during and after a messy divorce from Sarah Palin's sister.

"I had hundreds of conversations and communications about Trooper Wooten over the last several years with my family, with friends, with colleagues, and with just about everyone I could -- including government officials," Palin said.

"I talked about Wooten so much over the years that my wife told me to stop talking about it with her."

But he also said: "My concerns ... were not why Monegan was reassigned," adding that to the best of his knowledge, Monegan, the state's former public safety commissioner, incurred the governor's displeasure because of "budget issues and failure to fill trooper vacancies."

The move by the Palin camp to release the affidavit, in advance of the legislative hearing tomorrow at which Branchflower is scheduled to unveil his finished report, appears to have raised some eyebrows.

State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican but frequent Palin critic, told ABCNews.com: "The McCain campaign should not be releasing these documents."

The state's Supreme Court is scheduled to rule today on a GOP suit to quash the investigation, after a lower court threw out the effort last week.

It looked a couple weeks ago as if the McCain campaign's effort to shut down Trooper-Gate had largely succeeded.

But not so fast. Steve Branchflower, the independent investigator on the case, will release his report Friday, and, as the Anchorage Daily News notes, he will have heard from almost every key witness -- with the important exception of Governor Palin herself. As a result, says the paper, Branchflower "appears to have the makings of a fairly complete account."

Over the weekend, a judge ruled that seven witnesses, all government employees, must comply with subpoenas to testify. Those witnesses have made plans to answer Branchflower's questions this week, under oath. And it was announced Monday night that Todd Palin will, through his lawyer, provide written answers to questions.

Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner whose firing by Governor Palin is at the center of the inquiry, told the ADN that he spent nearly a day answering Branchflower's questions, and also handed over some documents.

A legislative panel will meet at 1pm EST Friday, to receive Branchflower's report. But the GOP effort to resist the probe has one more lifeline. Lawyers for a group of Republican legislators will try at 7pm EST today to convince the state Supreme Court to halt the probe, after a lower court rejected their suit last week. Stay tuned...

So it looks like Todd Palin will answer questions in the Alaska legislature's Trooper-Gate investigation after all. But there's a catch.

According to representatives of the McCain-Palin campaign speaking at an Anchorage press conference last night, the First Dude will respond to questions from independent investigator Steve Branchflower, but only in writing, and with the answers funneled through his lawyer.

The campaign argued that his written responses would satisfy the subpoena issued by the legislature to Todd Palin. In response, Sen. Hollis French, the Democratic lawmaker overseeing the probe, told the Anchorage Daily News that the full Senate would decide whether Todd Palin is really off the hook. Resisting a subpoena can be punished with jail time.

It was announced over the weekend that seven other subpoened witnesses, all of whom work for the Palin administration, will testify in person this week.

Branchflower is expected to wrap up his investigation late this week, and release a report shortly thereafter.

A judge may rule today on the effort by five Alaska Republican lawmakers to stop the Trooper-Gate investigation, reports the Anchorage Daily News.

The lawmakers, who are being aided by a conservative law firm affiliated with James Dobson's Focus on the Family, filed suit in mid September, arguing that the probe has been "tainted" by partisan politics. In a court filing, reports the ADN, a lawyer for the legislators overseeing the investigation asserted that the GOP lawmakers are "engaged in one of the most bizarre challenges to Alaska's separation of powers doctrine in the history of the state."

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski may also rule on the effort by state Attorney General Talis Colberg, a Palin appointee, to have subpoenas issued to witnesses by the investigative committee thrown out. Several top Palin aides, as well as Todd Palin, have refused to comply with the subpoenas and face possible jail time.

Steve Branchflower, the independent investigator hired by the legislature, is still expected to release his report -- which will center on allegations that Palin fired Walt Monegan, the state's former public safety commissioner, because he was unwilling to fire a trooper with whom the Palin family was embroiled in a bitter dispute -- around October 11th. Palin had initially welcomed the investigation, saying she had nothing to hide. But since being picked as John McCain's running mate, she has refused to cooperate.

We'll keep you posted on word from Alaska...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.'"

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.