Palin’s Husband Subpoenaed In TrooperGate
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Alaska, Ethics, Law, PalinANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — A special counsel has asked Alaskan lawmakers to subpoena Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband and a dozen aides as part of the investigation into Palin’s firing of her public safety commissioner.
Here are more of the posts on TrooperGate…
- Ethics Adviser Warned The Palins About TrooperGate
- Judge Warned Palin To Stop Talking About Trooper Wooten
- Inquiry Into Palin’s TrooperGate Will Continue
More as it develops…
This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Alaska, Ethics, Law, Palin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god…
September 12th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
A totally idiotic, legally pointless, political move that will completely backfire. The man has spousal-immunity and will be of no value to the investigation.
But hey, good job Alaskan Democrats. With enemies like this…who needs friends. You people need to take lessons from the Republicans on how to conduct a witchhunt.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Todd Palin is a central figure in this investigation because of the fact that two persons in depositions have claimed that they got non-public information about Wooten’s employment directly from Todd Palin. In fact, Todd Palin met with Monegan in the governor’s office to hand him a dosier on Wooten while Sarah Palin was traveling.
Todd Palin’s actions make him central to the investigation.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
J. Harden – Spousal immunity only applies if they’re asking him to testify about her activities, not if they’re asking him about his activities or those of other people, right? And why blame Alaska Dems? It’s my understanding that this investigation was launched, and subpoenas have to be approved by a bi-partisan panel in a Republican-controlled legislature.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
MarkinKC is right. I knew there would be a “dufus” right out of the gate crying foul and calling this a Democrat lead scandle. The judiciary committee that voted for the subpoenas is a Republican majority. I can’t believe I would say this but I respect at least some of the Republican base in Alaska. Whenever they vote someone in office there and they do wrong. They follow through and take care of it their way. Just like the other future felon up there Ted Stevens. Looks like come November Alaska will probably have a Democrat Senator.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
True and communications between the two of them. But as they say, the guy sitting next to him isn’t going to be a “potted plant.” And his “central” involvement hinges around the communication and action of his spouse…again, good luck.
My ultimate point being, if you’re going to subpeona the spouse in a politically charged investigation, you better make sure that where there is smoke there is fire. And on a two-bit melodrama like this…nobody cares because the guy was an a-hole to begin with.
But again, good luck, I’m sure that dragging the spouse in there won’t backfire in anyway if nothing comes of the investigation.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Justin, you DO know the difference between a request and an actual granted subpeona? Just askin’, as your title is incorrect at this point in time.
Advice to Dems, which I KNOW will be ignored. When you are in a hole, STOP DIGGING.
Chortling abut how emotionally and viscerally satisfying the shovel-wielding is to you will not make your hole smaller, or easier to climb out of.
September 12th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Allow me to amplify on the good advice being offered by Tully and Harden. We are all becoming very concerned about the emotional and psychological well-being of our left-of-center friends here at the Donk – seeing how much of their hopes and dreams are being invested in such a minor investigation.
Please ask yourself this question – After all of the sturm und drang of this investigation is finally complete, exactly what finding do you expect to come out of this to justify all of this buildup? Even if it plays out to your greatest hopes?
Consider:
1) The only executive action here is Palin firing a person in her own administration working in a position where hiring and firing is at the discretion of the governor.
2) This is a bipartisan legislative investigation which will couch any finding in um.. bipartisan legislative language.
OK. Let me help. This is the absolute best finding (from your perspective) that you can expect (spoiler alert):
“We the bipartisan legislative investigation found that the governor took a completely legal action that is within the bounds of her authority, but some of her actions may have created an appearance of inappropriate pressure.”
Keep in mind that is the best that you can expect. It is entirely possible, even probable, that the worst will happen and she will be completely exonerated.
I just want to to prepare you, because after all this buildup, I am very concerned about your mental state when this goes down. Keep the prozac handy.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Tully,
Have you really forgotten that this prosecutor was appointed by the unanimous vote of a majority Republican ethics committee?
September 12th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I hope we get to read the 1100 e-mails that she is trying to hide.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
I thought I left a comment here, but its disappeared into the ether so I’ll try again.
I want to amplify on the good advice being offered by Tully and Harden. We are all becoming very concerned about the emotional and psychological well-being of our left-of-center friends here at the Donk – seeing how much of their hopes and dreams are being invested in such a minor investigation.
Please ask yourself this question – After all of the sturm und drang of this investigation is finally complete, exactly what finding do you expect to come out of this to justify all of this buildup? I mean – best case – Even if it plays out to your wildest hopes and dreams?
Efore you answer, consider:
1) The only executive action here is Palin firing a person in her own administration working in a position where hiring and firing is at the discretion of the governor.
2) As Jim S points out, this is a bipartisan legislative investigation, that strted as a run of the mill local partisan dust-up, that now is a giantnational partisan cluster-fork. Net net – this means that the locals will find a way to cover their collective bi-partisan ass and couch any finding in um.. bipartisan legislative language.
Still not sure how this will turn out? Let me spell this out for you. This is the absolute best finding (from your Sarah Palin Derangement Sysndrome perspective) that you can expect:
SPOILER ALERT!
“We the bipartisan legislative investigation found that the governor took a completely legal action that is within the bounds of her authority, but some of her actions may have created an appearance of inappropriate pressure to fire trooper A. A person at her level of responsibility should be more careful about creating that impression”
And to that finding – most people who do not suffer from SPDS will say to themselves – “OK – So she pushed too hard to get a guy off the force who should not be on the force, is a danger to her family and the people of Alaska, and is only still on the force because of the union.”
Keep in mind that is the very best that you can expect out of this investigation. That is what I mean by – there is no there there. It is entirely possible, even probable, that the worst will happen (from your perspective) and she will be completely exonerated.
I just want to to prepare you, because after all this buildup, I am very concerned about your mental state when this goes down. Keep those anti-depressants handy.
September 13th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I agree with you MW, though I think the best the left can hope for can be a little more harsh the ultimately legal result is pretty much pointless–it won’t be enough to matter.
No one on the left really thinks she will be recalled, or even get her hand slapped, but if you take a page from the GOP play book, you hope the stench of investigation leaves an impression.
Ultimately, what the left wants to come out is something like: she’s a bitch who gets rid of anyone who doesn’t agree with her. There is no room for people of other opinions, she’s close miinded and plays cuthroat. She surrounds herself with yes people, which leaves her open to the same horrendous mistakes as George W. Bush. She is Bush in a skirt. Vote for the other guy.
That doesn’t mean a thing to the far right people who lick the bottom of her shoes when she lets them, but the middle is sick of Bush and will recoil from McCain Palin if they catch a whiff of his stench.
September 13th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Jim S.,
I have no idea how that directly relates to my comment, as it doesn’t really affect anything I said. My points (two, count ‘em, two) were that despite Justin’s post title, no subpeona has yet been issued for Todd Palin. The title is therefore false to fact, as in untrue. I WANTZ CHEEZBURGER and I HAZ CHEEZBURGER aren’t the same thing.
Second point is that the investigation is not even remotely a political winner for the Palin-haters, however much it might feed their slavering emotional need to demonize her.
To clarify the latter, what feeds one’s base oft tips away many more swing votes to the other side than it solidifies and turns out out for yours, and IMHO this is definitively one of those unbalanced meals. Even if the investigation turns up anything remotely improper it will be extremely small potatoes at best, and in the meantime the accusers are essentially championing a somewhat deranged thug of a cop against a person defending their family from death threats and a refusal of authority to take effective and proper action against the somewhat deranged thug of a cop.
So politically it’s a losing fight to get into. Even if you win, you lose. Teeny-tiny upside, HUGE downside, and you get the entire huge downside regardless of whether or not you get any part of the teeny-tiny upside. And in the meantime, you’re wasting resources that could be used more effectively elsewhere.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Tully,
My point simply is that the investigation was started by unanimous vote of a committee of the Alaska legislature which is majority Republican. It started before she was ever the nominee for Vice President. It was not a political gotcha from the Democratic Party. To back down from it, to let the RNC now make it go away completely like they are trying to do is simply wrong. You are taking the side of those defenders of Palin who are trying to make it about Wooten. But it’s about her taking action against the head of the Department of Public Safety when he didn’t do what she wanted done on a personal basis.
Look at this section of what you wrote:
You do realize that Wooten was disciplined for other infractions he was guilty of but that he was not punished more because each of the accusations you are repeating were solely accusations made by the Palin family during a custody dispute, one of the nastiest things that happens when marriages break up, don’t you? I don’t know if that really happened. Nobody does outside of the people involved and I just don’t think we’re going to come up with corroborating evidence. The internal affairs people in Alaska couldn’t come up with any proof of more than what they punished him for. I think he sounds like a jerk, personally. But that doesn’t mean the governor and her husband should be out there pushing for more to be done than what proper procedure resulted in. You can only hope that if he’s as much of a jackass as the Palins say he is that he won’t be able to stop himself from doing even more to get himself fired. But that’s not the case and I am not impressed from what I’ve read of how she ran either Wasilla or Alaska.