First of all, a H/T to Allahpundit at HotAir for posting the PDF link to Palin’s Ethics Disclosure. And a thank you to Curt for giving me the heads up, as I was buried under work today.
Trooper’gate: Beating MSM distortions to the truth.
We learn much from Sarah Palin’s “Ethics Disclosure Form”, filed Sept 1st by her Anchorage attorney, Thomas Van Flein. But before I go into details on her story of Trooper’gate, let’s address the latest leftist smears perpetuated by Talking Points Memo, and some of his merry band of gullible followers … dutifully falling in line here on Flopping Aces.
The goal? Spam the internet with with the lies so that the faith in Palin will be shaken enough that the truth – when it finally surfaces – will no longer matter. It will merely be a page A-23 one line correction… damage done.
That spam of lies happens to be that Palin is refusing to testify. Per TPM mudracker-in-chief, Josh Marshall:
It didn’t take long. We’ve already brought you news of the official investigation into Gov. Palin’s firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Steve Branchflower, the lead investigator, began trying to arrange a deposition of the governor days before her veep selection. And despite claiming executive privilege to shield requested emails, up until that point Palin had promised full cooperation with the probe.
Now, however, she is refusing to submit to questioning by Branchflower unless he and the legislative committee that appointed him agree to relinquish control of the investigation and turn it over to a state review board made up of three Palin appointees.
In one of those yellow journalism scandal headlines, “Palin Wants Independent Trooper-Gate Probe Called Off”, TMP goes on to mischaracterize the legal process for the Trooper’gate investigation.
In the latest sign that Sarah Palin’s promised cooperation with the Trooper-Gate investigation is failing to materialize, her lawyer is now demanding that the entire case be taken out of the hands of the independent prosecutor hired by Alaska lawmakers, and given over to a state personnel board — whose three members were appointed by the governor herself.
In an unusual “ethics disclosure” filed last night, along with related documents, to the state Attorney General, Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, asked the personnel board to look into the firing of Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner at the center of the case. Van Flein also asked the legislature to drop its own investigation, contending that only the personnel board has jurisdiction over ethics. And he suggested that if the legislature didn’t agree to hand the matter over to the personnel board, Palin would not be made available for a deposition.
“Unusual” ethics disclosure?? It is part of procedural law. Perhaps it’s “unusual” in that it’s not common to have these ethics investigations. Especially since Governor Palin has made it her prime business to end corruption by cleaning house. But Marshall is disingenous to suggest this is some unique and questionable approach to Alaskan law governing ethics violations.
I, personally, don’t see anything wrong with following Alaskan law, pursuant to AS 39.52.210(a), for for jurisdiction in the investigation. This statute states that a public employee, when faced with what “may” (remember that innocent until guilty bit?) be faced with charges that they violated Alaska’s ethics laws are required to disclose the matter, in writing, to the AG.
And under that same Title section, AS 39.52.310(c), legal jurisdiction for the investigations are mandated to a personnel board to oversee the proceedings. This is, to quote the attorney’s brief, “the only body in Alaska with the legal authority to do so.”
Naturally, this legal mandate is rather inconvenient for Branchwater, and Alaskan Dem legislator in charge of the investigation, Sen. Hollis French. Branchwater is the independent prosecutor hired by the Alaska legislators (via French), despite his questionably close relationship to the “victim” in the investigation, Walt Monegan.
But legal procedure is legal procedure.
Sen. French vows to proceed anyway… damned be those pesky laws, I guess. Palin’s attorney has said if they do, since they are not following proper procedure, Palin will not be available for deposition.
However leave it to the desperate left, scared out of their undersized willies at the appearance of the dynamic Alaskan governor on the election scene, to spin it as a “dodge” by Palin.
To the contrary, Palin is quite willing to cooperate in legal procedure – using the proper jurisdiction – for the ethics complaint. The current three person board are all appointees by Palin’s predecessor, Murkowski. One, however, Debra English, was re’appointed by Palin.
Per Alaskan law, the personnel board has the choice of the independent counsel retained, acting in place of the AG in the investigation. They may well choose Branchwater… or not. However the legislature has no authority to foist Branchwater onto the board as the counsel.
AND… Palin is on record in her Ethics Disclosure that she has no position on who the personnel board chooses as a prosecutor.
This puts to rest the “refusing to testify” charges. That may be a half-truth for those that aren’t sure what “the meaning of is… is”. But what is factual is Palin will refuse to be deposed in a proceeding with no legal jurisdiction. And who could blame her?
However truth matters not to the leftists scandal-mongers. Their goal is to blanket the internet with lies and half truths. If they can put the question into the minds of the voters hard and fast enough before the truth comes out, the damage will be done.
But the truth is, it is Palin who wants to follow Alaskan law in this investigation, and the legislators and their complainants who want to blaze their own path for the procedures in an all out vendetta.
Now, to the more interesting parts of the “Ethics Disclosure” brief. I’ll summarize, but there is no excuse for those seeking truth to read the 13 page disclosure in it’s entirety at the link above.
The brief starts out with a shocking truth, and repeated elsewhere in the brief:
“For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff….”
former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan
Anchorage Daily News, Aug 30, 2008
To pull the entire Monegan quote from ADN story mentioned in the brief above:
For the record, no one ever said fire Wooten. Not the governor. Not Todd. Not any of the other staff,” Monegan said Friday from Portland. “What they said directly was more along the lines of ‘This isn’t a person that we would want to be representing our state troopers.’ “
To express an opinion of a Trooper on a short leash by superiors because of a history of exhibiting “a serious and concentrated pattern of unacceptable, and at times, illegal activity”* is a far cry from “pressure” to fire the trooper. In fact, personal issues aside, Palin has long opposed government corruption, and most especially troopers and legislators who feel they are above the law.
* quoted from Col. Julia Grimes investigation of Mike Wooten, and reproduced in the Ethics Disclosure brief
Ironic that the entire investigation is based on supposedly an abuse of power by applying pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten – and all brought to bear publicly and officially by his personal cheerleader, Andrew Halcro. One would think this statement alone should make the entire endeavor just a waste of time and money. But we have more interesting tidbits under the disclosure subheadings which may explain why they are so willing to waste time and money….
As I mentioned, the man driving the accusations, leading to the investigation, is Andrew Halcro – the former “also ran” gubernatorial candidate against Palin on the Indy party. What is even more interesting is that Halcro revealed to the press that his source of information is none other than Mike Wooten himself. Also, according to the Disclosure, Halcro was less than pleased that he wasn’t offered a position in the Palin administration.
Either way, people are reading. Halcro, who lost to Palin when he ran as an independent in the 2006 election for governor, said visits to andrewhalcro.com exploded starting about a month ago. That’s when he first detailed the feud between the Palin family and an Alaska State Trooper that’s now part of an investigation of the governor and her staff.
“I think it’s fair to say he got the ball rolling, at least on this issue,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Hollis French, D-Anchorage.
~~~Palin fired former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan on July 11.
Less than a week later, Halcro — who had been blogging nonstop at the time about Palin’s gas pipeline legislation — said he got a phone call suggesting he talk to Trooper Mike Wooten, the governor’s ex-brother-in-law.
Halcro and the trooper met at the Sheraton hotel bar for three and a half hours, he said. At 1 a.m. the next morning, Halcro posted a blog item titled “Why Walt Monegan got fired: Palin’s abuse of power” that described Palin and Monegan disagreeing over the public safety budget before detailing a list of complaints the Palin family made against Wooten.
Halcro won’t say who gave him Wooten’s cell phone number.
The motive for vengence grows…. and Halcro has clearly chosen the more questionable moral character for his side of the argument.
And it also comes out that the Palin family did not learn until just recently about the scant discipline Wooten received. Monegan never informed them.
Bailey is on record, under oath, that he acted on his own initiative, and did not apply pressure to fire Wooten. Period. Subject closed. My opinion? Don’t like his testimony under oath? Prove him wrong, and charge him with perjury. Oh, right… not many get charged with perjury anymore. Most especially high level public officials.
And BTW, Palin put him on administrative leave for acting without authority.
If Walt Monegan believes there is a violation of Alaska’s ethics laws, he is required to file an Ethics Disclosure, just as Sarah Palin has done. He has not done so.
In fact, again from an Anchorage Daily News article on July 22, 2008, Monegan specifically stated to KUDO that he “was not accusing the governor of anything”. But he was curious as to why he was fired.
The direct quote from the ADN article is:
On the KUDO show, Monegan said: “Am I accusing the governor of anything? … No. I think the biggest thing that keeps me up at night is why.”
Which again brings us to the reasons Palin did fire Monegan, as laid out in her Ethics Disclosure.
Walt Monegan was the former chief of police in Anchorage. He had been terminated from his job by Mayor Mark Begich in 2006.
~~~When Governor Palin took office later in 2006, she appointed Monegan to be the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety.
Over the course of eighteen months, Monegan took actions and positions that contradicted Governor Palin’s beliefs that taxpayers are entitled to efficient and cost-effective government. These were good-faith disagreements about appropriate government policy, and the governor and others in her administration saw it that way.
You can continue reading about her disapproval of Monegan’s performance at the PDF linked above.
This is an investigation based on a complaint by third parties. Monegan – the supposed victim – has not filed a formal complaint in the form of an Ethics Disclosure. He has repeatedly stated no one pressured him to fire Wooten.
This is, in essence, an accusation without a victim… and brought about by those with personal reasons to stir the Governor’s pot. Disgruntled election losers, and Alaskan legislators finding their honey pots of corruption been encroached on by a tough governor who cares nothing about party affiliation.
Wooten – the disgraced trooper – is the source for Halcro, the man driving the charges. The legislature is determined to ignore ethic law procedures, and run a witch hunt that is outside their legal jurisdiction.
This is a non-story. Instead the real story is the mudrackers trying to trash the GOP veep. And why? She presents some serious competition to the DNC ticket.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
The MSM and tin foil hat brigade are frothing at the mouth…
I love it… the more they scream the more I know Palin is the right pick….
I would expect nothing less from them…. it’s what they are… PATHETIC LIARS.
Ah yes,,, the party of tolerance and inclusion…
http://americandaily.com/article/23030
Shameless. If Republicans were doing to this to a female Democrat, we’d never hear the end of it.
Barring FOX and a handful of others here and there, the media is full of disgusting, self-interested, hypocritical hacks.
you have to wonder why this is even news, it is a nothing event. if the msm can’t see that this about sour grapes, and not even legal sour grapes then there are to stupid to have their jobs. wooten would ahve been fired far before he was in any other state and city, the media is actually on a hunt for the bad cops. so this morn who is pissed because he lost an election, and wasn’t offered the consulation job is gonna back a lying, abusive, drunken asshole to try and bring down an ethical politician, nice. real nice. the media really needs to get their stories straight, why are they so scared of her also?
Borrowing a line from Bob Owens, Josh Marshall continues to spew his garbage in an integrity-free zone.
Great post.
I’ve have tried to explain this to people not from Alaska – because you have to really research what is going on. This whole situation was brought to “light” by the man (Halcro) that Governor Palin beat out for governor. Mr. Halcro has a blog set up to beat (destroy) Sarah Palin. And, let’s get a couple of things straight. 1. The trooper (Whooten) had tasered his 10 year old son; 2. He theatened to kill Governor Palin’s father; 3. He shot an illegal moose (a cow – or female) and 4. He drank alcohol while on duty in his trooper vehicle. Governor Palin’s husband was concerned (personally, my husband was born and raised here in Alaska and I am very impressed that he (Todd) did not beat the Sh_t out of him – the trooper) about her safety and that of his family. Commissioner Monegan was never told to fire Whooten (just felt pressure). What a wimp. The Commissioner was offered another position and refused. So, he was fired. It was his choice. There is no scandal here. It is totally partisan on the part of the Alaska legislature to check it out. Governor Palin is fantastic. She has fought for our State and continues to do the right thing. This is really a non-issue that the MSM (and her enemies here) are trying to promote. The real disappointing thing to me – an Alaskan – is that the former governor (Tony Knowles) people gave the MSM their data on Governor Palin including her ss#. Governor Palin in incredibly popular in Alaska. Research her. Learn about her. She is the real deal! And, if given the opportunity, would be a fanstastic VP!
Dear C from Alaska
Yes maam… I have been learning lots about Ms. Palin over the past days. And all you say above, I did in my original Trooper’gate post linked above.
I, like you, did not have the benefit of witnessing it first hand, but had to pour thru archives to put together the time line of events. I’m quite glad to hear that it is as it appears.
And I thank you very much for your local perspective as confirmation.
This is a great summary. http://www.notwrightforamerica.com has also been all over the media’s distortions in this Troopergate witch hunt. They also point out, and this is important, that this legislative witch hunt is being led by a partisan democrat, Hollis French, and that he has already made statements about how the investigation report is going to be “damaging to Palin”. This is outrageous in what is supposed to be a fair and impartial investigation that is not even close to complete. In fact, they haven’t even heard the Governor’s side yet!
MH said,
It’s unusual in this sense, Palin requested her own three person ‘Personnel Board’ –that she appointed — review the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Monegan. She’s requested the matter be dropped by the state legislature, as her attorney argues, in the Disclosure, the Personnel Board has jurisdiction over ethics. So, in essence, Palin is making a case for the state not having jurisdiction on ethics complaints. Yet, in saying this she is saying ‘I am making out an ethics complaint against myself.’ Yet the state investigation involves more that just ethics, it is also investigating others in the Administration and is more than just about an abuse of power, they argue. Hence, that’s the oddity: she’s filing an ethics complaint against herself. Of course, she wouldn’t see it that way, but that’s how it can be construed.
Anyway, whereas Palin had agreed work with the state’s investigation, now she refuses to, claiming the state is involved in a jurisdictional over reach.
Lawdy, Doug… are you reading challenged? Need some Vitamin A??
You spit out Marshall’s TPM lies, and totally ignore the legal procedures. And I’m not going to let you get away with that.
You say…
As I CLEARLY stated above, the three person personnel board doesn’t have to be “requested”… it exists as part of govt structure there. The three people were all appointed by Murkowski. Do I need to say that a little louder? BY MURKOWSKI. Duh One of them, evidently had their tenure come around, and Palin RE appointed her. She did not seek a replacement.
That’s an outright lie from you… checked off as BS.
Nope.. You may “construe” it that way. But then I tend to believe Obama supporters will “construe” anything that they hope can knock down competition for His Messiahship…. the quintessential example of an unvetted candidate, BTW.
Don’t you know the difference between “disclosure” and “complaint”? You get disclosures when you buy houses, listen to commercials about drugs, etc. It is information that is required to be disclosed. Period.
Alaskan law requires that if there is suspected ethics violations by govt employees the disclosure forms must be filed. The actions by Halcro and French by instigating an investigation that is out of their jurisidiction obviously indicates *someone* suspects there is an ethics violation. She is not putting in a complaint against herself… it’s more like a formal alert. She is advising the AG of a suspected ethics complaint, as per the law, and what she knows about the circumstances. The reasons for a Ethics Disclosure form is stated quite plainly in the brief.
Well now, Doug, if it’s more than about Sarah abusing her power as governor, exercising pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten, why don’t you tell us what those charges are? Or do they have to run an investigation before they can find out what those other charges are? That’s not an investigation. That’s a Salem witch hunt.
Secondly, if they are investigating “others”, then why assail Palin? Third… if they are investigation others, such as Bailey, who’s on administrative leave, then they are still doing it… how shall I say this… OUTSIDE THEIR JURISIDICTION.
This is especially desperate from you, Doug. She said she had nothing to hide, and would cooperate with a investigation. However she should NOT cooperate with an investigation that is conducted outside of legal jurisdiction.
And lookie at you… the woman will cooperate with a investigation following Alaskan law, and you’re whining because she won’t walk into the bear trap deliberately set by her political enemies.
Personally, I can’t wait for her to get to the beltway, and make even more political and media enemies.
You, Doug, have really lost it on this one. And BTW, could you give us someone with more substance the one-step-above-a-tabloid TPM? I use local and int’l papers, blogs from both sides. Lately you’re really hitting rock bottom… one little news blurb from a place as ethically questionable as Huffpo.
MH,
I got most the facts from wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Public_Safety_Commissioner_dismissal
It’s heavily footnoted.
You are right about Palin not making the appointments; they were Murkowski’s. TPM is in error.
So, let’s return to the basics:
Palin is now refusing to testify to the state’s “bipartisan committee of the Alaska Legislature [that] voted 12-0 to hire an independent investigator to investigate Palin and her staff for possible abuse of power surrounding the dismissal.(wiki)
Yet in August
…or here (WP): “Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week moved to change the jurisdiction of the case to the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.”
Therefore, before attempting her new jurisdictional run-around to blunt the state investigation, she _was_ willing to cooperate earlier. Now she is refusing.
Of course, things have changed now; she’s in the big game. The investigation was to end in Oct., a terrible time for being in the game. So, this needed attention, and so it’s getting it.
I stand by my statement:
Here’s the media seeing it the same way:
http://www.adn.com/front/story/515508.html (local)
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/51592.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/03/palin.investigation/
Again, that’s why it’s “unusual”.
MH says,
As I said, her and her staff, or administration, is being investigated as well:
http://www.adn.com/monegan/story/492964.html?loc=interstitialskip
Here we find it more to the point:
http://www.adn.com/monegan/story/492077.html
MH says,
Well, it’s Palin that ordered her own investigation:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/08/mccains_vp_pick_palin_facing_e.html
Call it what you want, but Palin was under pressure to act, so she really had no choice.
Remember, it was Palin that ordered
MH says,
No, she never, until now, said she would disregard the state legislature’s investigation. Now she claims, as you do, it’s up to the ‘Personnel Board’:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h7VIY5GfDmjy-A5HsGLuHvA0SHtgD92V0QCG1
==============
MH, are you going to do an update on the more recent event of her leaked emails?
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/the-palin-email.html
Thank you for your mea culpa on the Board members, Doug. And now, I’m going to give you one back. They do consider Palin’s Ethics Disclosure a notice of a “complaint” (tho it doesn’t read like one).
So I’m going to apologize to you, and concede. I’ll go with the “filing the complaint against herself” bit. Which, BTW, I have no problem with. I’m not a fan of “congressional investigation”… either federal or state. There’s something particularly sleazy and inbred about the process.
And yes, I’m working on an update. However in the latest breaking news, the emails of Sarah’s to Monegan are still a non-isse. First, they contain nothing incriminating. From what I understand, they do point out Wooten is a scumbag trooper who doesn’t deserve to be in the AST. But that’s certainly not a false statement.
But there is nothing that shows pressure to fire Wooten, and therefore nothing to support his case he was terminated by not acting on Wooten.
Instead, Trooper’gate is about to take a differenct tact.
More later…going to see if McCain can follow Sarah….
I’m glad to see that this has finally been explained. I did my own research and it didn’t take long to get to Halcro and see that Andy was all behind this. I listened to the recorded phone call – which was supposed to be “pressure” to fire Wooten. One thing I didn’t see mentioned (which, ironically, is clearly stated on the “secretly” recorded phone call) is that Wooten lied on his application for the job as trooper to start with. He should never even have BEEN a trooper, and yet he still IS at trooper.
Consider this: what if there was no “troopergate” investigation? The MSN would run a different smear: “Gov’s ex-brother-in-law Tazers Nephew – Gov. Does Nothing” and then they would challenge her credibility as a reformer. LOL!
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out, does it?