Todd Palin Subpoena – Alaskan First Dude Todd Palin received a subpoena to testify in the Troopergate investigation involving political pressure from both Sarah and Todd Palin to fire a State trooper getting a messy divorce from Sarah Palin’s sister.
Todd Palin got the subpoena because of his repeated involvement in Troopergate as an emissary of Governor Palin and his release of Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten’s confidential State employee file in a workmen’s compensation lawsuit.
Todd Palin regularly attends Alaska state government meetings despite having no official post and is copied on scores of official emails by Palin administration staffers.
The abuse of power investigation against Sarah Palin, Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, took a potentially ominous turn for her party on Friday when state lawmakers voted to subpoena her husband.
The subpoenas, which were approved for 12 state employees in addition to Todd Palin, instantly gave a new, national significance to what until recently was a controversy confined to Alaska.
The Senate committee acted at the request of investigator Stephen Branchflower, who is gathering evidence on whether Gov. Palin abused her power by firing Walt Monegan, the state’s director of public safety, who oversaw Alaska’s state troopers.
Critics charge she fired Monegan after he refused to dismiss Mike Wooten, a state trooper who had a messy divorce from the governor’s sister. Palin says Monegan was let go because of a budget dispute.
Branchflower said he wants to interview the governor, but omitted her from the 13-person list of subpoena targets he presented to the lawmakers overseeing his investigation.
He said Todd Palin is “such a central figure. … I think one should be issued for him.”
While Todd Palin’s role in the dismissal of Monegan is unknown, the request for a subpoena suggests he spurned earlier calls to testify voluntarily.
In his presentation to lawmakers, Branchflower revealed evidence that the governor’s office interceded to try to have Wooten’s worker’s compensation claim denied.
An employee at a company that handles such claims for the state, Harbor Adjustment Service, told Branchflower that the company’s owner said “the governor’s office wanted the claim denied.”
One of the subpoenas issued Friday was for the company’s owner, Murlene Wilkes. Branchflower said he had an informal conversation with Wilkes in August, and believes she was lying when she said she had never been contacted by the governor’s office.
Monegan says he received repeated e-mails and phone calls from Palin, her husband and her staff expressing dismay over Wooten’s continued employment.
One member of Palin’s administration was caught on tape discussing personal information about Wooten, raising questions of how he knew those details.
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 Sarah Palin’s own attorney, Bailey testified that he never saw Wooten’s file, but instead received the information from Todd Palin.
And that’s the latest news on Sarah Palin, Troopergate, and the Todd Palin subpoena.
Tags: sarah palin, todd palin, todd palin subpoena, troopergate
September 13th, 2008 at 12:41 am
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September 26th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Seven of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s top aides defied subpoenas for their testimony Friday into possible abuse of power by the governor.
Palin’s Chief of Staff Mike Nizich and six other aides failed to appear at a legislative hearing into whether Palin abused her power when she fired her public safety commissioner this summer.
Alaska Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, D-Anchorage, waited 30 minutes Friday before reading a statement that the witnesses could be found in contempt when the full Legislature convenes in January and that the investigation will go on “in a simple search for the truth.”
Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg filed a lawsuit on behalf of the seven state workers Thursday challenging the subpoenas. He claims the committee has no jurisdiction to issue subpoenas in the investigation and questions whether the investigation’s overseeing body, the Legislative Council, had the authority to begin a probe.
Colberg said in a news conference Friday that he never directed anybody to ignore subpoenas, but advised the seven that they had two options: Show up and testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee or don’t and join the lawsuit.
“If they were a normal subpoena, we do not believe they would be optional,” Colberg said.
Palin fired Walt Monegan, the public safety commissioner, in July. He claims he was fired for refusing to fire a state trooper who had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister.
He claims he was pressured by Palin, her husband and members of her staff to fire the trooper.
Palin denies the charge, and says he was dismissed over budget disagreements.
The Legislative Council, in a unanimous bipartisan vote, ordered an investigation into Monegan’s firing, and Palin agreed to cooperate — until she was named John McCain’s running mate.
Since then, Palin — through the McCain campaign — has accused lawmakers of manipulating the probe to be potentially damaging ahead of the November election. She said through her attorney, Thomas Van Flein, that she will cooperate only with a separate investigation by the Alaska State Personnel Board, which is conducted in secret and can take up to two years to complete its work.
Most witnesses under subpoena, including Palin’s husband, Todd, have refused to testify before the special investigator or the legislative body. Colberg said their advice to the state employees was made without input from the McCain campaign. Todd Palin was advised by Van Flein, who filed a complaint with French objecting to the subpoena.
Van Flein is under contract with the state to represent the governor but also represents her husband as a private citizen, Colberg said.
Five Republican state legislators have filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the Legislative Council’s investigation.