Alaska Lawmakers Vote to Subpoena Palin's Husband in Trooper Probe

Alaska Lawmakers Vote to Subpoena Palin's Husband in Trooper Probe

elections.foxnews.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska lawmakers voted Friday to subpoena the husband of Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, in a move that transformed a messy state personnel issue into a national campaign controversy.

The lawmakers acted at the request of Stephen Branchflower, who is in the midst of an investigation into the governor’s dismissal of the state’s director of public safety.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This should be in the Political News section but the submission forms for Political and General News aren't working right now mods.

Palin has said she fired the commissioner, Walt Monegan, over disagreements about budget priorities. Monegan says he received repeated e-mails and phone calls from Palin, her husband and her staff expressing dismay over Wooten’s continued employment.

Branchflower also asked for a subpoena for the phone records of one Palin administration official, Frank Bailey. Bailey was recorded calling an Alaska State Trooper lieutenant and discussing confidential information about Wooten, including his job application and worker’s compensation claim. In a deposition taken by Palin’s attorney, he testified that he never saw Wooten’s file, but instead received the information from Todd Palin.

Oh my... it doesn't look good for the presumptive veep...



elections.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 9/12/2008 by mythatsabigprobe]

I posted here about the fact that she's withholding over 1100 emails and claiming executive privilege. Except that about 40 of those emails were copied to her husband, which means that executive privilege won't stick.

It will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


That's an eye opener. And yes, it does remind me of someone... has anybody seen Cheney lately... do you think plastic surgery could... nah!

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


Ok, I can't help say this:

You can put lipstick on Cheney and it's still Cheney.

Here's a related video on the "Troopergate" investigation.

Video Link

Here's what's going to happen in this case. The investigation will find her guilty. This much is obvious; Hollis French, the Dem leading the charge (and the man who selected the lead investigator), has already prejudged her.

"It's likely to be damaging to the Governor's administration," said Senator Hollis French,

"If they had done their job they never would have picked her," said French. "Now they may have to deal with an October surprise," he said, referring to the scheduled release Oct. 31 of the committee's final report.

Link

October 31st, huh? Now that's a hell of a coincidence. The election would be in 5 days. I guess he wanted it to be an 'October Surprise.' Sure sounds like it from his above statement. (Note: it has been rescheduled to early October to avoid the appearance of obvious influence on the election).

He also appears on Barack Obama's website as one of several Alaska State legislators supporting Obama. Kim Elton, another of the primary backers of this investigation, is also listed.

Conflict of Interest? Hmm...

The entire investigation is tainted, IMO. I think there *should* be an investigation, mind you, but not a politically motivated hatchet job, which this appears to be.

How will that work, if there's proof that Palin did abuse her powers and fire this guy just to get at her sister's ex-husband? Do you think they'll fabricate the evidence?

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


If you were accused of a crime, would you want your enemies leading up the investigation? That's what's happening here. I do not believe they will fabricate evidence, mind you. I simply believe that they'll determine her to be at fault regardless of what the evidence actually shows.

Supposedly, people in this country are innocent until proven guilty, but again, he has already pre-judged her. That is clear from his statements. There are also conflicts of interest regarding her nomination as McCain's VP and the fact that the investigators have overtly supported Obama's campaign. I'm not calling for an end to the investigation, but it needs to be fair, and at this point in time, it does not appear to be.

My opinion? She may well have attempted to have the trooper fired. That won't be a big deal in terms of public opinion; he was hardly Trooper-of-the-Year material. Monegan? As long as she can prove her claims that he wasn't meeting certain criteria for the job, she's probably in the clear on that as well.

Mind you, she will still be found guilty. Whatever the actual evidence shows, she'll be painted in the worst possible light. This I can guarantee.

On the other hand, I don't think it will matter. Since it is now set to be released 4 weeks ahead of the election instead of just a few days, there will be much more time for the public to examine the findings very closely. There will be a firestorm when its first released, but I think it'll be debunked rather quickly. I think this is part of the reason that Palin filed an ethics complaint against herself; to get the ball rolling so that they would have time to present their side of the story to the public.


[edit on 13-9-2008 by vor78]

And just to raise the stench level a little more surrounding this witch hunt, I mean, 'investigation', it turns out that Stephen Branchflower's wife worked with Monegan in the Anchorage Police Department.

And Branchflower, the investigator, is a former Anchorage prosecutor whose wife used to work for Monegan at the Anchorage Police Department.

Link

Even the Palin-hating Huffington (com)Post acknowledges this. Yet another potential conflict of interest. Branchflower himself worked as the Assistant DA for the City of Anchorage from 1974-1998, so one would assume that he, too, knows Monegan quite well (Monegan became Anchorage Police Chief in 2001, but was initially hired with the city's police force in 1974).

Also of note? Branchflower requested to lead this investigation.



[edit on 13-9-2008 by vor78]