Alaska

Only Three Palin Ethics Complaints Were Still Pending

Zachary Roth | July 8, 2009, 3:01PM

If you had to pick out a coherent explanation given by Sarah Palin for her decision to quit as Alaska governor, you'd probably have to settle on the notion that she felt her agenda was being paralyzed by frivolous ethics complaints, and that she only foresaw additional ones. So she stepped down so as not to continue to drag Alaskans through the process.

"Palin Says Ethics Complaints Were Paralyzing" reported the Anchorage Daily News after the governor's round of beachside interviews Monday. And Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, who'll soon replace Palin as governor, had given that line over the weekend, saying on Fox News that Palin had talked to him about the toll the complaints had taken.

Read more »

Alaska

AK Lawmaker On Trooper-Gate AG's Resignation: "The Chickens Have Come Home To Roost"

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.

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...

David Iglesias

Fired US Attorney To Prosecute Gitmo Cases

Zachary Roth | January 21, 2009, 11:25AM

David Iglesias -- the former US Attorney who was fired in 2006 for failing to prosecute politically motivated cases as aggressively as the Bush administration and its allies wanted -- has a new job.

Iglesias, a member of the US Naval Reserve JAG corps, has been reactivated as part of a special prosecution team for Guantanamo detainees, he told a New Mexico news station this morning.

"One hundred percent of what I'm doing is prosecuting terrorist cases out of Guantanamo," he said.

Igleisas explained that he had already begun the work, having travelled to the facility once, and expecting to go back.

"It's the most significant set of orders I've had in my 24 years of navy service," he added. "The level of detail that I'm looking into some of these terrorist groups, it just takes my breath away."

And he signaled what seemed to be a change in tone from the Bush years. "We want to make sure that those terrorists that did commit acts will be brought to justice -- and those that did not will be released."

Asked about the unlikelihood of being named to a frontline job in the war on terror, after being fired as a US Attorney for alienating the Bush administration, Iglesias allowed: "It's been very ironic."

Here's the video:

We've got our own call in to Iglesias...

Trooper-Gate

Sarah Palin: Blast From The Past

Zachary Roth | December 26, 2008, 10:40AM

Remember Sarah Palin?

Governor of Alaska? Republican vice-presidential nominee? Expensive wardrobe? Can see Russian from her house? Gets her news from a vast variety of sources?

Yeah, that's the one.

Here at TPMmuckraker, we've kind of been steering clear of her since the election. But lately, who'd have thunk it, we started missing her. So, given the prominent role she may yet play in national GOP politics in the future, we thought we'd check in on what she's been up to since returning to her day job. And from the looks of it, her familiar penchant for eye-catching if ill-advised media stunts, and her impressive ability to deny on Tuesday what she had passionately affirmed on Monday, appear to be in good shape.

Of course, we all saw the interview she gave -- and her unfortunate choice of backdrop for it -- right after pardoning a turkey just before Thanksgiving.

OK, for those of you who can't get enough, here it is one more time...

But it hasn't been all fun and turkey slaughterhouses for Palin. First, earlier this month, Palin, who marketed herself during the campaign as a maverick-y exemplar of reform-minded openness and transparency, filed disclosure reports for free trips she had taken as governor. Nothing wrong with that -- except that the trips took place in 2007, and according to Alaska law, reports must be filed within 30 days of the trip. A spokesman attributed it to staff oversight.

That's just the beginning. Remember that second Trooper-Gate investigation, conducted by the state personnel board -- whose members, of course, are appointed by the governor? The one that found, in contrast to the independent probe conducted by the legislature, that Palin broke no laws in connection with the affair? Well, back in October, while Palin was still a candidate for vice president, her lawyer said publicly that she wanted a transcript of her testimony released.

But it appears that position is "no longer operative." Palin has now changed her mind, and is refusing to release the transcript. In an email to an Anchorage Daily News reporter, her press secretary wrote: "This matter is closed. We see no public purpose in artificially prolonging this controversy."

And speaking of panels whose members Palin appointed and which then issued favorable rulings for her...

You might remember that during the campaign, the governor took some heat for boasting about enacting a pay cut for herself while mayor of Wasilla, without mentioning that the cut was soon exceeded by a raise, leaving her making more than when she started.

Well now the issue of her pay is back in the news. Last week, a special panel charged with looking at the question of pay raises for the governor, other senior administration officials, and legislators -- -- whose members were appointed by, you guessed it, Palin -- released its recommendations. And, surprise surprise, it advised raising Palin's pay by 20 percent -- as well as boosting that of the others under consideration.

After some lawmakers pointed out that the governor's pay had been raised by a whopping 46 percent as recently as 2006 -- the year Palin was elected governor -- her spokesman, Bill McAllister, tried to tamp down the complaints. "Her view is, it's just not appropriate to accept a pay raise in the middle of the term," he told the Associated Press -- but appeared to be leaving open the possibility that Palin might see her way to accepting the pay hike after her first term ends in 2010, when she'll likely seek reelection.

Which reminds us ... only another year to wait, in all likelihood, before we get to see Palin running for office again! Now that's something to look forward to.

Alaska

Palin's Emails Reveal a Habit of Bringing Up Troubles With Wooten

Kate Klonick | November 3, 2008, 9:15PM

Today's new Trooper-Gate report (pdf), shows a number of the emails between Gov. Sarah Palin and fired Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan that discuss Trooper Mike Wooten. While the report finds that Palin did not violate any ethics code in firing Monegan, it's worth looking at the emails between the governor and Monegan -- many of which seem to go out of their way to bring up the governor's grievances against her former brother-in-law Wooten.

An e-mail sent on Feb. 7, 2007 from Palin to Monegan with the title "CONFIDENTIAL cop bill" actually spends little time discussing the cop bill at all. While the email briefly touches on the bill -- which addressed jail time for police officers after killing someone -- the governor spends a full three paragraphs discussing her family's history with Wooten.

It was a joke, the whole year long "investigation" of him - in fact those who passed along the serious information about him to Julia Grimes and Tandeske were threatened with legal action from the trooper's union for speaking about it. (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")

Three months later, after a flair up with another state trooper, Palin used the incident as an excuse to mention Wooten again to Monegan:

[B]etween this and the message I received the other night where an Ak [sic] State Trooper recently told a friend of family [sic] that he could further "mess with the governor's sister" by claiming falsehoods about us. . .

In July of that same year, Palin emailed Monegan about a legislative proposal on guns. Again, Palin used the opportunity to bring up Wooten:

The first thought that hit me when reading Gara's quote about people not being able to buy guns when they're threatening to kill someone went to my ex-brother-in-law, the trooper, who threatened to kill my dad yet was not even reprimanded by his bosses and still to this day carries a gun, of course. We can't have double standards.

And in Sept. of 2007, Palin brought up Wooten as the "trooper we've talked about before" in an email to Monegan relating to a state settlement with another trooper.

The take-away on Palin's emails to Monegan listed in the exhibits, is that she didn't shy away from inserting her personal history into her official dealings. Whether or not it was Monegan's failure to pay deference to these (not-so) subtle hints that led to his firing, is still unknown -- but this report would have you believe it didn't.

As we noted before, this report is the result of the investigation at the behest of Palin herself -- so it's not any kind of big surprise that it exonerates her.

Alaska

Report: Palin Not Responsible For Todd's Acting Out

Zachary Roth | November 3, 2008, 8:19PM

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.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Report Initiated By Palin Clears Her Of Wrong-Doing

Zachary Roth | November 3, 2008, 7:45PM

The Alaska State Personnel Board's Trooper-Gate report has been released, and it clears Sarah Palin of any wrong-doing.

CNN reports:

"There is no probable cause to believe that the governor, or any other state official, violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with these matters," Timothy Petumenos, the Anchorage lawyer hired to conduct the probe, wrote in his final report.

Of course, this was an investigation that Palin herself initiated, by filing an ethics complaint against herself. The three members of the Personnel Board are appointed by Palin, and she cooperated with the investigation.

By contrast, the only independent investigation into the matter -- which was conducted by the state legislature and with which Palin did not cooperate -- found that Palin had violated state ethics laws by pressuring subordinates to fire Mike Wooten, a trooper with whom she was embroiled in a family dispute.

The report's "Summary of Public Findings and Recommendations" follows after the jump...

Read more »

Alaska

AP: Second Trooper-Gate Report To Be Released Tonight

Zachary Roth | November 3, 2008, 6:43PM

The Alaska State Personnel Board will release its report into Trooper-Gate tonight, reports the Associated Press.

From the AP:

Timothy Petumenos, an independent investigator hired by the Alaska Personnel Board, says he will release the report during a news conference 7:30 p.m. EST Monday.

A separate legislative panel earlier found that Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, abused her office by allowing her husband and other staffers to pressure the public safety commissioner to fire a state trooper who went through a nasty divorce from Palin's sister. She fired the commissioner, but denies it had anything to do with the trooper.

Alaska

Second Trooper-Gate Probe Expanding

Zachary Roth | October 14, 2008, 2:15PM

There's further evidence that the investigation into Trooper-Gate being conducted by the state Personnel Board could have real teeth.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that the probe has broadened to include other ethics complaints against Sarah Palin, and actions by other state employees.

That's according to the investigator hired by the board, Timothy Petumenos, who conveyed the information in two recent letters sent to an Anchorage attorney who had threated a lawsuit over Palin's effort to waive confidentiality in the matter.

Petumenos, a Democrat with a reputation for aggressive prosecutions, plans to sit down with the governor, who is cooperating with his investigation, next week.

It's not clear which other ethics complaints about the governor Petumenos is now looking into, but two have been previously reported. One relates somewhat to Trooper-Gate: the state troopers' union alleges that state officials illegally examined the personnel file of Mike Wooten, seeking damaging information on him. Wooten's feud with the Palin family was at the center of Trooper-Gate.

In addition, a good-government activist has alleged that Palin circumvented state hiring practices in giving a job to a supporter.

Petumenos has also requested a copy of the Branchflower report, released Friday.

Many observers have questioned the ability of the personnel board to come to independent conclusions on Trooper-Gate, largely because its three members are appointed by the governor, and it conducts its deliberations largely in secret.

It's unclear when Petumenos' investigation will wrap up, but the ADN also reports that the personnel board has meetings scheduled for Oct. 20 and Nov. 3. Adds the paper: "The agendas for those meetings mention confidential ethics matters to be handled in executive session."

Separately, ADN reports that Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner whose firing by Palin is at the heart of Trooper-Gate, has asked the personnel board to hold a hearing, then issue public findings, on whether he was a "rogue" employee and demonstrated "insubordination", as the Palin camp has publicly alleged in an effort to discredit him.

Palin has given several apparently contradictory explanations for why she fired Monegan. Branchflower's report concluded that Monegan's reluctance to fire Wooten was a contributing factor in his own dismissal.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate: Where Do We Go From Here?

Zachary Roth | October 13, 2008, 11:22AM

The Trooper-Gate report found that Sarah Palin violated a state ethics law and abused her power by pressuring subordinates in trying to get Mike Wooten fired. So what happens next?

In terms of official actions, maybe nothing, at least in the three weeks between now and November 4th.

If Palin were to be prosecuted for violating state law, the state attorney general would likely take the lead. But Attorney General Talis Colberg -- who until Palin plucked him from obscurity to make him the state's top lawyer was a Matanuska Valley assemblyman and private-practice lawyer -- has been criticized for appearing to represent the governor's interests in Trooper-Gate, rather than the public interest. So a prosecution led by the AG's office seems unlikely.

Of course, the state personnel board is continuing its own probe of the affair, with which Palin has been cooperating. The board has the authority to impose fines or even recommend impeachment for violations of the ethics act. But the board's members are appointed by the governor, calling into question its ability to draw independent conclusions.

Still, it has hired Timothy Petumenos -- an aggressive Anchorage lawyer, and a Democrat -- to investigate. Newsweek reports that Palin is scheduled to sit down with Petumenos next week, and his findings could be released soon after. "We took a gamble when we went to the ethics board," a McCain aide told the magazine.

Before the report was released, the idea had been floated that the legislature could institute impeachment proceedings. But since Friday night, that possibility appears to have receded. According to a TPM source who attended Friday's session of the legislative council, State Senate President Lyda Green, an outspoken Palin critic, replied with a flat 'no' when asked, after the report's release, whether impeachment was being considered.

And Green told the Christian Science Monitor over the weekend that even a censure motion is unlikely, since the legislature is not currently in session.

Walt Monegan, whose firing as public safety commissioner was at the center of the affair, declined to say whether he was considering filing suit against the administration, when asked this morning on NBC's The Today Show. But the report concluded that Palin was within her rights in firing him, since, as governor, she can fire any executive branch official for any reason.

So it may be that whatever impact Trooper-Gate has on the presidential race will be based on the findings released Friday. If nothing else, the fact that Palin was found by a legislative investigation to have broken a state ethics law will only further complicate the McCain campaign's flagging effort to present her as reform-minded advocate for a more open, honest approach to governing.

Alaska

Palin Falsely Claimed Report Cleared Her of Legal Wrong-Doing

Zachary Roth | October 13, 2008, 9:08AM

It's fair to say that Trooper-Gate hasn't exactly burnished Sarah Palin's reputation for honesty. And in a conference call she gave Saturday to respond to the legislature's report on the affair released Friday night, that reputation took another hit.

Palin opened her remarks by declaring:

I'm very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing ... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there.

Steve Branchflower did conclude that Palin was within her rights to fire Walt Monegan -- since, as governor, she can fire any executive branch official for any reason.

But he also concluded, just as definitively, that Palin pressured and intimidated subordinates in trying to force the firing of Mike Wooten. In doing so, Branchflower wrote, she violated a state ethics law which says that "any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action" is a violation of the public trust.

When an Anchorage Daily News reporter followed up by reminding the governor of this finding, she did not respond directly.

(Below is the audio from the call, preceded by some video footage from over the weekend of Palin calling the Trooper-Gate inquiry "a partisan kind of process.")

In the call, Palin also asserted that the inquiry "did turn into a partisan circus" -- perhaps forgetting that it had been launched through a unanimous vote of the bipartisan legislative council, and that the council voted unanimously again on Friday to release the report to the public.

And asked how she felt about having called Walt Monegan, a widely respected public servant, a "rogue", she replied: "'Rogue' isn't a negative term."

Alaska

Monegan: Palin Aide Knew Of Top Cop's Sexual Harassment Rap

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 4:18PM

Aside from what it says about Sarah and Todd Palin, the Trooper-Gate report also appears to paint Mike Tibbles -- the governor's former chief of staff, who's now running Ted Stevens' Senate re-election campaign -- as shockingly incompetent. And that's the best case scenario for Sarah Palin.

To explain: Steve Branchflower writes on page 113 of the report that Walt Monegan told him about a conversation between Monegan and Tibbles, shortly after Palin was inaugurated as governor in January 2007. According to Monegan, Tibbles asked Monegan to consider hiring Chuck Kopp, formerly the police chief of Kenai, for a job in the public safety department.

As a result, said Monegan, he met with Kopp. When Monegan asked Kopp whether there was anything in Kopp's background that Monegan should be aware of before hiring him, Kopp revealed that, as Kenai police chief, he had been reprimanded over a sexual harassment allegation, though he maintained that it was bogus.

Monegan told Branchflower that the next day, he talked to Tibbles. "I disclosed what Chuck had told me," said Monegan. Tibbles responded that, in that case, they had "better steer clear from [Kopp] for a while."

But in a separate part of the report (page 43) that we noted earlier, Branchflower writes that in July 2008, Kopp was hired as public safety commissioner -- replacing Monegan -- after being interviewed for the job by two Palin aides for just 30 minutes, and without speaking directly to the governor about it at all.

Just two weeks later, Branchflower writes, Kopp resigned the post, when the sexual harrassment reprimand surfaced. Adds Branchflower: "Apparently, that was a fact that the governor's office did not know about when Mr. Kopp was offered the commissioner's job."

Indeed, at the time, the governor's office said publicly that at the time Kopp was hired, the governor knew of the allegation but understood it to be baseless, and was unaware of the letter of reprimand.

But the report suggests that Tibbles -- who, just four days before Kopp's hiring, was announced as Stevens' campaign manager -- did know about the reprimand, because Monegan had told him about it back in January 2007.

In other words, if Branchflower is correct, Tibbles failed to pass on to his colleagues in the governor's office his knowledge of Kopp's reprimand, setting them up to hire for a high-profile position a man with a significant black mark on his record.

It's also possible, of course, that Branchflower has erred in writing that the governor's office didn't know about Kopp's reprimand when it hired him. Perhaps Tibbles did pass along the information, but Palin and her aides, in their haste to find a replacement for Monegan, decided to overlook it and hire Kopp anyway, trusting that the issue would not resurface.

Tibbles did not immediately respond to a detailed request for comment.

So either Palin's chief of staff was jaw-droppingly incompetent, or she knowingly hired as the state's top law enforcement official a man who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, then lied to the press about it. Neither alternative is flattering.

Alaska

Report: Firing Wooten Wouldn't Have Made Palins Safer

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 2:29PM

As we noted last night, the Trooper-Gate report found that Sarah Palin's claims that she feared Mike Wooten were unfounded. But the subject of Palin's alleged concern for her own and her family's safety deserves more attention.

The McCain-Palin campaign has argued that the Palins were acting merely to "protect their family" in going after Wooten.

But in the report, Branchflower disposes of that argument:

Assuming that Trooper Wooten was ever inclined to attack Governor Palin or a family member, logic dictates that getting him fired would accomplish nothing to eliminate the potential for harm to her or her family. On the contrary, it might just precipitate some retaliatory conduct on his part. Causing Wooten to loose (sic) his job would not have de-escalated the situation, or provided her or her family with greater security.

Alaska

Palin Never Interviewed Monegan's Replacement

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 1:25PM

Here's some evidence from the Trooper-Gate report about just how eager Sarah Palin was to get rid of Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner.

Steve Branchflower found that Palin never interviewed Monegan's replacement, the appropriately named Chuck Kopp, for the job of top law enforcement officer in the state. Rather, she left the task to deputies, who conducted just one 30-minute interview.

Writes Branchflower: "Governor Palin did not speak to Mr. Kopp before he was appointed to his new job."

And as we already knew, Kopp served just two weeks in the job, before resigning after news reports surfaced showing that he had been reprimanded in connection with a past sexual harassment complaint.

Of course, the report found that Palin was within her rights to fire Monegan, since, as a legal matter, the governor can fire state officials for any reason, or none at all.

But that doesn't mean that, as a question of governance, it wasn't a rash, poorly thought-out move, done for reasons of personal pique rather than a concern for the public interest.

Alaska

For Palin, A Picture of Wooten Is Worth A Thousand Words

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 12:36PM

Here's a funny note from the report that brings home the depths of Sarah Palin's antipathy toward Mike Wooten:

Shortly before the annual celebration of Police Memorial Day on May 15, 2008, Commissioner Monegan had dropped off a color photograph at Governor Palin's Anchorage office with a request that she sign and present it at the ceremony. The photograph was of an Alaska State Trooper who was dressed in a formal uniform, saluting. He was standing in front of the police memorial located in front of the crime lab at AST headquarters in Anchorage, partially obscured by a flagpole. The picture to be signed by the Governor was to be used as a poster to be displayed in various Trooper Detachments around the state.

Shortly after he returned to his office from dropping off the photograph, he received a call from Kris Perry, Governor Palin's Director of her Anchorage office who asked [according to Walt Monegan's testimony] "Why did you send a poster over here that has a picture of Mike Wooten on it?" Until that moment, Commissioner Monegan never realized it was indeed a photograph of Trooper Wooten. Governor Palin cancelled her appearance and sent Lieutenant Governor Parnell in her place.

Monegan's eventual replacement as Public Safety Commissioner, Charles Kopp, testified that Palin aide Frank Bailey later called him and told him the administration was thinking about replacing Monegan as commissioner. When Kopp asked why, Bailey cited the incident with the Wooten photograph as one reason, among several, for the governor's displeasure with Monegan.

Alaska

Monegan's "Ominous Feeling" After Meeting With Todd

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 12:16PM

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.

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.

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.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Report Came In Under Budget

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 10:39AM

From the start, the McCain-Palin camp's major strategy in defending Sarah Palin on Trooper-Gate has been to argue that the investigation is a partisan witch-hunt run by supporters of Barack Obama, designed to inflict maximum political damage on the governor.

But most partisan witch-hunts don't end up spending only 75 percent of their allotted budget.

Sen. Hollis French, who was overseeing the probe, told the Anchorage Daily News last night that the investigation ended up costing only $75,000. When legislators voted to launch it in July, they had authorized spending up to $100,000.

The paper reports that Steve Branchflower, the investigator, will be paid $45,000, and the additional $30,000 went to "expenses such as copying, court reporting and transcribing, and managing computer files."

Of course, the fact that the report's release date was moved up by three weeks, to ensure it didn't appear on the eve of the election, may have been one reason why it came in under budget.

Still, Branchflower left $25,000 on the table. That's not exactly the move of 21st-century Ken Starr, a comparison made by Palin's lawyer.

Alaska

Palin "Failed To Act"

Zachary Roth | October 11, 2008, 10:23AM

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.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Report: McCain Campaign Statement

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 10:06PM

Here's a statement from the McCain-Palin camp on the report.

"Today's report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan," said Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapelton. "The report also illustrates what we've known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten given his violent and rogue behavior. Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact. The Governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country."

Sarah Palin

Palin's Claims She Feared Wooten Were Bogus

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:46PM

Here's another interesting finding, that belies a key claim made by Governor Palin in her defense against the Trooper-Gate allegations.

"Governor Palin has stated publically that she and her family feared Trooper Wooten. Yet the evidence presented has been inconsistent with such claims of fear."
...

"I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palin's real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons."

Alaska

Sarah Palin Pursued "Personal Agenda" in Seeking To Get Trooper Fired

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:42PM

Here's another of the report's key conclusions:

"The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in "official action" by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation]. She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor's office and the resources of the Governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees, in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired."

...

"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: To get Trooper Michael Wooten fired.''

In other words, the investigators appear to have concluded that Palin's improper conduct was not the firing of Monegan, which, as governor, she had a right to do for essentially any reason. Rather, it was the improper pressure placed on subordinates in her effort, conducted largely through her husband, to get Mike Wooten fired.

Alaska

Monegan: Todd Palin Was "Venting"

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:22PM

About that meeting between Todd Palin and Walt Monegan, arranged by Todd Palin:

Monegan described to investgators that Todd Palin recounted to him the evidence against Wooten that had came out in the 2005 internal trooper probe -- including that Wooten tasered his stepson and drank while driving a patrol car.

Said Monegan: "He told me ... this guy shouldn't be a trooper."

Monegan added:

"My impression initially was that he's venting. I mean, there was a complaint, the troopers investigated it and they came up with a conclusion, and that he was not happy with he conclusion.

And often, having been a cop for a long time, that actually happens a lot in divorce cases."

Alaska

Todd Palin, First Gentleman

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:08PM

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.'"

Alaska

Todd Palin Pressured Wasilla Police Chief Not To Hire Wooten

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 8:58PM

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.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Report Finds Palin Abused Power in Firing Monegan

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 8:42PM

The just-released Trooper-Gate report finds that Sarah Palin abused her power in the affair by pressuring subordinates to fire Mike Wooten, thereby violating an Alaska law holding that "each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust." *

It also finds that Monegan's "refusal to fire Trooper Mike Wooten" -- who was embroiled in a family dispute with the Palins -- "was not the sole reason [Monegan] by Governor Sarah Paln" but "it was likely a contributing factor". Still, the firing was a proper exercise of Palin's authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.

In addition, the report found that the office of Attorney General Talis Colberg failed to substantially comply with the legislature's written request for information about the case in the form of emails.

* This sentence has been updated from an earlier version.

Alaska

Lawmakers To Release Trooper-Gate Report

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 8:22PM

The legislative council voted 12-0 to release the Trooper-Gate report, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Legislators had been in a closed door meeting all day.

We'll let you know about its findings once we have a copy.

Update: Here's the report.

Alaska

Alaska Lawmakers Could be Meeting For A While

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 3:20PM

Sounds like the members of the Legislative Council in Alaska, who are meeting behind closed doors to vote on whether to release the Trooper-Gate report to the public, could be there a while.

A source who's at the state legislative building where the meeting is taking place reported moments ago that the lawmakers just ordered lunch.

And the Anchorage Daily News adds:

Two lawmakers who've stepped out of the meeting briefly say it could be hours.

Senate President Lyda Green, a Wasilla Republican, and Rep. Peggy Wilson of Wrangell said the session is moving slowly.

How slow? Wilson was asked.

"Slooowwww," she said.

During the public portion of the meeting, Wilson said that she had not yet had a chance to read the report -- which centers on the firing by Governor Sarah Palin of the state's former public safety commissioner -- and suggested that she would therefore be reluctant to release it publicly today.

Alaska

Trooper-Gate Session Begins: GOP Legislator Sounds Reluctant To Release Report

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 1:30PM

The Alaska Legislative Council has been begun its meeting. It will soon go into a private executive session to hear a briefing from Steve Branchflower on his findings in the Trooper-Gate investigation, and to vote on whether to release his full report to the public.

At TPMmuckraker, we've been listening on streaming audio to the public portion of the session. And already it looks like it could be a struggle to get a yes vote on releasing the report.

A Republican member of the council, Rep. Peggy Wilson, said that the report -- which runs to 1000 pages, including evidence -- was so long that she hadn't yet had time to read it, and therefore didn't feel comfortable moving forward.

So it doesn't sound like Rep. Wilson will vote for releasing the report today. Whether her GOP colleagues feel similarly will determine what we find out today.

We'll keep you posted...

Alaska

Release Of Trooper-Gate Report Hangs On GOP Cooperation

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 11:41AM

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."

Alaska

Palin Exonerated -- By McCain-Palin Campaign!

Zachary Roth | October 10, 2008, 9:47AM

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.

Sarah Palin

Palin on Personnel: Sometimes It Gets Personal, Sometimes It Gets Political

Kate Klonick | October 9, 2008, 7:28PM

Here at TPMmuckraker, we've been closely following Sarah Palin's various personnel decisions from her time as governor of Alaska for quite a while, but we had no idea how tough those decisions had been until we heard it from Sarah herself.

In an interview with Greta van Susteren, Palin called personnel decisions her most "agonizing" work as governor and quipped: "Sometimes it gets personal, sometimes it gets political."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Transcript after the jump.

Read more »

Alaska

Court Throws Out GOP Effort to Quash Trooper-Gate

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2008, 4:40PM

The Alaska Supreme Court has rejected the effort by Republican legislators to quash the Trooper-Gate investigation, affirming the decision of a lower court last week.

Details from the ruling to follow...

Update: The court wrote: "The order of the superior court issued on October 2, 2008 granting the Motion to Dismiss is AFFIRMED. An opinion will follow."

The ruling was provided to TPMmuckraker by Peter Maassen, the attorney for the legislators overseeing the investigation, who are named as defendants in the case.

Independent investigator Steve Branchflower is scheduled to release his report -- which centers on the firing by Governor Palin of former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan -- at a legislative hearing tomorrow.

Alaska

Todd Palin Waged Campaign To Get Trooper Fired

Zachary Roth | October 9, 2008, 10:07AM

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.

Trooper-Gate

Trooper-Gate Probe Could Carry Weight, After All

Zachary Roth | October 8, 2008, 11:01AM

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...

Alaska

Todd Palin To Answer Questions in Trooper-Gate Probe. Kind Of.

Zachary Roth | October 7, 2008, 10:28AM

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.

Alaska

State Employees Will Honor Trooper-Gate Subpoenas

Kate Klonick | October 5, 2008, 9:12PM

On the heels of the dismissal of the Alaska attorney general's suit to quash subpoenas issued in the legislature's Trooper-Gate investigation, seven subpoenaed state employees who had previously said they would not cooperate with the probe have now agreed to testify.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

"Despite my initial concerns about the subpoenas, we respect the court's decision to defer to the Legislature," [Alaska Attorney General Talis] Colberg said. "We are working with Senator Hollis French to arrange for the testimony of the seven state employee plaintiffs."

French has said they still expect the investigation's report to be completed by this Friday.

Alaska

GOP Suit To Halt Trooper-Gate Probe Dismissed

Zachary Roth | October 2, 2008, 9:12PM

An Alaska judge dismissed a suit brought by state GOP legislators that aimed to stop the Trooper-Gate investigation.

Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski wrote in his decision that "it is legitimately within the scope of the legislature's investigatory power to inquire into the circumstances of surrounding the termination of a public officer the legislature had previously confirmed."

The Republican lawmakers had argued that the probe had been inappropriately politicized by the Democrats overseeing it, and that the legislature did not have the authority to pursue the investigation.

According to Peter Maassen, an attorney representing the Democratic lawmakers who were named as defendants in the case, lawyers for the plaintiffs appeared to be creating a transcript of the proceedings, suggesting an intention to be appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

But for now at least, the probe can continue. Independent investigator Steve Branchflower is scheduled to deliver a report on his findings around October 11.

Alaska

Ruling Expected Today on GOP Bid to Halt Trooper-Gate Probe

Zachary Roth | October 2, 2008, 9:21AM

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...