Henkimaa

Branchflower reports on page 8 of his report four major findings:

1. Palin abused her power in violation of Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which provides 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.” His reasons for this findings are given later; I haven’t had a chance to read them yet.
2. Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire Trooper Wooten was not the only reason Palin fired him, but was probably a contributing reason. However, Palin was still within her rights to fire him.
3. Harbor Adjustment Services of Anchorage and its owner Murleen Wilkes handles Trooper Wooten’s workman’s compensation claim properly, & Wooten got the workman’s comp to which he was due.
4. Attorney General Talis Colberg failed “substantially” to comply with Branchflower’s August 6, 2008 request for information in the form of emails.

More later, when I’ve had time to read. But I imagine plenty more info about the findings & implications will be available from all over the place really soon.

But here’s an update from the ADN’s Kyle Hopkins:

3 p.m.: So here’s something to consider while we wait for the Legislative Council to vote — and yes, we’re still waiting:

The council needs eight votes to release the investigator’s report. Three members of the 14-member council aren’t here — Rep. Ralph Samuels, Rep. John Harris and Rep. John Coghill.

Unless they called in after the meeting started, that means they’re automatic “no votes.”

So what’s going on behind those doors? Do they have enough votes to make the report public?

Sen. John Cowdery isn’t here, but phoned in.

I’d reckon there are at least five votes in favor of releasing the report: the four Democrats on the committee, & Sen. Lyda Green, Republican of Wasilla, who is not a big Palin fan.

Here’s the list of Legislative Council members, from the Alaska Legislature’s website.

We’re hoping, anyway, that it’ll be release today. The Alaska Legislative Council is apparently still in its meeting, which began at 9:00 AM. Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News is at the legislative offices in downtown Anchorage and posting occasional updates at the ADN’s Alaska politics blog. The latest:

12 noon: Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau and the Legislative Council chairman, stepped out for a bathroom break and was asked how it was going inside. “I’m not going to characterize it,” he said. “I’m tempted to, but I won’t.” None of the others coming and going from the room have had anything to say.

Then Jeff Turner, an aide to the Senate majority, came out and said it would be at least another hour until any official word emerges from within.

A bigger story on the hearing was posted by the ADN at 11:00 AM:

Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau, chairman of the Legislative Council, gave no indication how long the secret session might last or when Branchflower’s report might be made public.

But 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.

Each legislator, meeting at the Legislative Information Office in downtown Anchorage, had two big binders on the table in front of him or her – one green and a larger red one. They contain some 1,000 pages in all.

Before the meeting was closed to the public, Wilson said she hadn’t had time to read the full report after picking up a copy Thursday night and she said she might be uncomfortable discussing it until she had.

“I spent hours on it yesterday and didn’t have time to read it all,” she said.

Elton agreed with Wilson, telling her he could have spent four days on the report himself. But Elton added that he was able in just a few hours to get the gist of Branchflower’s findings and recommendations.

Tony Hopfinger at Alaska Dispatch posted on the scene in downtown Anchorage:

The council is composed of 14 legislators, 10 Republicans and four Democrats. Three Republican legislators—Senator Gary Wilkins and representatives John Harris and Ralph Samuels—did not show up today. Senator John Cowdery, who has been indicted on corruption charges, was on the phone at a meeting before the council went in closed session.

Outside the Legislative offices on Fourth Avenue, as many as 75 pro-Palin supporters were chanting early today “Go Sarah, go.” Some of them are holding balloons in the shape of kangaroos, implying that the council is nothing but a kangaroo court.

Matt Apuzzo of the Associated Press also has a story about the meeting.

Meanwhile, Andrew Halcro, who was first to expose the Palinocracy’s pressure on Walt Monegan to (illegally) fire Mike Wooten, admits (with a great deal of irony) to being “The blogger on the grassy knoll:”

am to blame for the entire Troopergate scandal and the ensuing investigation into if Governor Sarah Palin abused the power of her office by firing former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan because he wouldn’t fire her ex brother in law, State Trooper Mike Wooten.

Me, me, me. The blog stops with me.

I am responsible for Governor Palin’s husband Todd’s weird obsession with his former brother in law State Trooper Mike Wooten, where he admitted in a deposition this week that he has spent years trying to get Wooten fired.

I am responsible for the “over two dozen phone calls” Governor Palin admitted her staff made to the Department of Public Safety to inquire about the status of her former brother in law.

I am responsible for the recorded phone call where Palin’s right hand man Frank Bailey is pressuring another State Trooper that Wooten needs to be fired, even though he hadn’t been able to convince anyone else in authority.

“Mike Tibbles (Palin’s former Chief of Staff) disagrees with me, Audie Holloway(a State Trooper Lt. Col.) probably disagrees with me and Walt does (Commissioner Walt Monegan)” Bailey said in the recorded phone call released by Governor Palin on August 13.

I totally put him up to it even though he said he got the confidential information he shared in the call from Todd Palin.

Also in that same phone call Bailey said, “She (Palin) really likes Walt a lot, but on this issue she feels like it’s, she doesn’t know why there’s absolutely no action for a year … it’s very troubling to her and the family. I can definitely relay that.”

So according to Bailey, the governor “really” liked Monegan’s performance, but just not his performance in responding to her wishes to see Wooten out of a job. This was on February 29, 2008…and then four months later Monegan is fired?

I admit, this is all my handy work.

Of course, not really. Because of course really the McCain/Palin report, released last night (though darned if I can find a copy) that purports to find Sarah Palin innocent of any wrongdoing, is a big pile of doggie doodoo. As Halcro goes on to explain.

The national press is paying attention. A story in today’s New York Times about Troopergate by Serge F. Kovaleski reports:

Ms. Palin has denied that anyone told Mr. Monegan to dismiss Trooper Wooten, or that the commissioner’s ouster had anything to do with him. But an examination of the case, based on interviews with Mr. Monegan and several top aides, indicates that, to a far greater degree than was previously known, the governor, her husband and her administration pressed the commissioner and his staff to get Trooper Wooten off the force, though without directly ordering it.

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.

Not only that, but the question even came up with Chuck Kopp, who briefly replaced Monegan as DPS commissioner before he was forced to resign due to a past sexual harassment charge:

Nor did that interest end with Mr. Monegan, the examination shows. His successor, Chuck Kopp, recalled that in an exploratory phone call and then a job interview, Ms. Palin’s aides mentioned the governor’s concerns about Trooper Wooten. None of the 280 other troopers were discussed, Mr. Kopp said.

The Palinocracy has spoken: Sarah is innocent!

Or at least that’s what the Palin Ministry of Truth Squad would like us to believe. Mainly, it’s just the next idiotic step in the McCain/Palin campaign’s futile efforts to steer the Troopergate investigation. Now that the efforts in court to quash the legislative investigation have failed with today’s Alaska Supreme Court ruling, the Truthiness people are attempting to preempt Branchflower’s report tomorrow by releasing a report of their own “investigation” tonight.

Per Matt Apuzzo of the Associated Press:

Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.

This ranks right up there with the ethics complaint that Palin filed against herself in order to try to pull the investigation over to the Personnel Board, & then to attempt to dismiss her complaint against herself because she decided she was innocent.

Ludicrous.

Just in from the Anchorage Daily News: the Alaska Supreme Court has upheld Judge Michalski’s decision in Keller v. French, rejecting the attempt to quash the legislative investigation into why DPS Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired.

Here’s the Anchorage Daily News story on the decision.

Here’s the Alaska Supreme Court’s order affirming Judge Michalski’s October 2 ruling. An opinion will follow.

Tony Hopfinger at Alaska Dispatch talked with fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan about Todd Palin’s deposition in the legislative Troopergate investigation.

Walt Monegan, the former public safety commissioner that Sarah Palin fired, says Todd Palin’s statement in the Troopergate investigation backs up what he’s said all along: The First Dude was obsessed with seeing his trooper ex-brother-in-law canned.

“Todd says (in his statement) that he’s been campaigning on that for years,” Monegan said in a phone interview Thursday with AlaskaDispatch.com. “I think he had a kind of obsession with it.”

Which certainly seems to be what others have observed about Todd Palin. Frankly, I’d be more scared of Todd Palin having his sights on me than of Trooper Wooten.

Monegan says he and others in the Public Safety Department had numerous conversations with the Palins and the governor’s aides over the couple’s concerns with Wooten. Wooten had been disciplined for misconduct reported by the Palin family before Sarah was elected governor. Monegan concluded the matter had been resolved.

Exactly. The misconduct & the Department of Public Safety’s discipline for the misconduct had already taken place prior to Sarah Palin becoming governor. The Palins issue is that they don’t believe the discipline Trooper Wooten was given was enough. Maybe that’s so: but as DPS Commissioner, Monegan’s hands were tied because (1) discipline had already taken place; & (2) the law & a union contract between the state & the Trooper’s union both forbade going back to increase the discipline for the same offenses long after the fact. The Palins don’t seem to get this; nor do a number of Palinistas who keep on harping on Wooten’s offenses in reader comments about Anchorage Daily News stories about the case.

The question on Monegan’s mind now is who was the thrust behind the effort to have Wooten fired?

“When I was contacted by the attorney general, or Annette Kreitzer, or (Mike) Tibbles, who was the instigator of that?” Monegan wonders. “Somebody actually had to set that up. Who leaned to make them call me? Was it Sarah? Was it staff? Was it Todd?”

It was magic.

Todd Palin argues in his statement that his family’s concerns with Wooten went unaddressed and that he believes the Public Safety Department was looking out for one of its own.

Monegan disagrees and said he actually working on a new effort to bring better oversight to investigate allegations of trooper misconduct in his agency. He said he proposed in spring to create an internal affairs unit, something that hasn’t existed. The unit would review allegations of misconduct by officers, instead of relying on troopers investigating their fellow officers. The Alaska Legislature this year funded one of two positions Monegan proposed, he said.

Which is exactly what should be done.

Word comes tonight that Todd Palin’s 25-page written deposition in the legislative Troopergate scandal was released to the press by his attorney. The Anchorage Daily News reports:

Todd Palin talked with over a dozen state officials, many of them repeatedly, in his crusade to get a state trooper fired who he considered to be a bad cop, a dishonest person and a threat to the Palin family, according to his sworn statement given Wednesday to a legislative investigator.

But you don’t have to take the ADN’s word for it: read the deposition for yourself.

Then read Andrew Halcro’s analysis of it, which points out a number of misstatements & inaccuracies in the “First Dude’s” account. Jason Leopold at The Public Record also has an analysis, including background details contradicting Todd Palin’s claim that Sarah Palin was uninterested in Trooper Wooten:

But Todd Palin’s claim in his affidavit that Gov. Palin was uninterested in what her former brother-in-law was up to stands in stark contrast to documents that have been publicly well before the probe commenced.

Since she became governor in December 2006, Palin was deeply enmeshed in the dispute with Wooten before she was sworn in as governor, according to a review of documents relating to the case.

Palin filed several formal complaints against her ex-brother-in-law over the course of three years alleging he engaged in illegal behavior while on duty. But her complaints relied heavily on second-hand information, some of which was later determined to be suspect and unverifiable.

Lodging 36 accusations against Wooten in 2005 alone, Palin and her family appeared to be waging a vendetta against the trooper who was assigned to the wildlife division. Palin personally seemed obsessed with ending his career.

When the Troopergate scandal first broke, & the bipartisan Alaska Legislative Council — a constitutionally mandated permanent committee of the Alaska State Legislature — voted 12-0 to investigate the circumstances of the Gov. Sarah Palin’s firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, Palin welcomed the investigation. “Hold me accountable,” she said.

But no sooner was Palin tapped as McCain’s running mate than her cooperation & promises for openness & transparency went right down the toilet. McCain campaign apparatchiks in the form of a self-named “Truth Squad” virtually took over the Office of the Governor & the upper levels of the Alaska Department of Law. Attorney General Talis Colberg advised state employees, who had to be subpoenaed to testify to the Legislative Council’s investigator Stephen Branchflower, to ignore the subpoenas, & filed suit to quash the subpoenas. Six state legislators — all Republicans — filed suit to stop the legislative investigation.

Last week, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski threw the suits out, stating in his decision that the legislature has broad powers of investigation & that due to the separation of powers of the three branches of government, the judiciary cannot interfere in those investigations. But the six Republican legislators who sought to stop the investigation appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court.

The high court will hear oral arguments in the case today, with a decision to be handed down tomorrow. Meantime, the subpoenaed state workers, as well as Sarah Palin’s husband Todd, have all answered Branchflower’s questions. According to the Anchorage Daily News:

With his Troopergate report due Friday, legislative investigator Steve Branchflower appears to have the makings of a fairly complete account, despite weeks of resistance from the Palin family and administration.

Branchflower has, or soon will have, answers from nearly all the people he’d hoped to question regarding Gov. Sarah Palin’s firing in July of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

But Sarah Palin, who initially pledged cooperation, is not one of them.

The Alaska Supreme Court’s decision tomorrow appears to be the deciding factor over whether Branchflower’s investigative report, due to be submitted the very next day, will ever see the light of day. That appears to be the principal reason behind the appeal: the plaintiff legislators fear that results of the investigation will have a negative impact on Palin’s candidacy for the vice presidency of the United States. They insist (as the McCain/Palin “Truth Squad” did) that the investigation has been politicized, without recognition whatsoever of how their own activities have politicized the investigation.

The Alaska Court System has the relevant documents in this case, Keller v. French. Of particular note:

• Order on Motion to Dismiss and Temporary and Preliminary Injunction (Judge Michalski’s decision)
• Appellants’ Brief
• Appellees’ Brief