Two Tidbits on TrooperGate
You’ve no doubt heard that the terrorism prosecutor brought in to cover-up TrooperGate lied when he claimed that Walt Monegan was going "rogue" when he went to DC to try to secure funds to prosecute rape.
An internal government document obtained by ABC News appears to contradict Sarah Palin’s most recent explanation for why she fired her public safety chief, the move which prompted the now-contested state probe into "Troopergate."
Fighting back against allegations she may have fired her then-Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, for refusing to go along with a personal vendetta, Palin on Monday argued in a legal filing that she fired Monegan because he had a "rogue mentality" and was bucking her administration’s directives.
"The last straw," her lawyer argued, came when he planned a trip to Washington, D.C., to seek federal funds for an aggressive anti-sexual-violence program. The project, expected to cost from $10 million to $20 million a year for five years, would have been the first of its kind in Alaska, which leads the nation in reported forcible rape.
The McCain-Palin campaign echoed the charge in a press release it distributed Monday, concurrent with Palin’s legal filing. "Mr. Monegan persisted in planning to make the unauthorized lobbying trip to D.C.," the release stated.
But the governor’s staff authorized the trip, according to an internal travel document from the Department of Public Safety, released Friday in response to an open records request.
The document, a state travel authorization form, shows that Palin’s chief of staff, Mike Nizich, approved Monegan’s trip to Washington D.C. "to attend meeting with Senator Murkowski." The date next to Nizich’s signature reads June 18.
But we knew that was going to happen. This is Vindictive Firing 2, the Farcical Sequel. And we’re moving into the phase where they try to throw lie on top of lie to cover up their original abuse of power.
I’m more interested, frankly, in the news from Andrew Halcro that Murlene Wilkes did not blow off her subpoena.
French stated that of the fourteen subpoenas that were issued, six were served and seven were not and the last was for cell phone records for Frank Bailey that had been turned over to the special investigator Steve Branchflower by the cell phone company.
In addition, French said that John Bitney, Palin’s former legislative liason, had already appeared and given a deposition to Branchflower and another person subpoenaed, Murlene Wilkes, an owner of a workers compensation claim adjustment firm that was allegedly pressured by the governor’s office, agreed to show up today with her attorney. [my emphasis]
You see, ever since Steve Branchflower revealed that he believed Murlene Wilkes may have had "financial incentive" to lie to him when he interviewed her earlier in his investigation, I have wondered whether Branchflower understood those "financial incentives" to be explicit, or simply the worries of a state contractor trying not to piss off the governor. If it was the former, then this thing will blow wide open on October 10 when Branchflower releases his report.
In any case, even the fancy NY terrorism prosecutor doesn’t appear, yet, to have succeeded in squelching this investigation.
Update: Confused last names fixed, per FrankProbst.
“Murlene Branchflower” should be “Murlene Wilkes”, I think.
Now that Branchflower has thrown down his 10/10 report gauntlet, it will be very interesting to see what is left is the bag of Eddie O’Callaghan to hold off the wolves.
I suppose MsBull…winkle could always jump into a helicopter with her trusty rifle.
And EW, one quick typo correction: 2nd last paragraph where Murlene Branchflower should be Murlene Wilkes.
I have to say that I like the idea of simply ignoring the stonewall and issuing a report. I’d go with something like this: “The governor broke her promise to co-operate with this investigation, and multiple witnesses broke the law and ignored subpoenas that were issued to them. Nevertheless, there is an abundance of physical evidence (Appendices A-P) demonstrating that Sarah Palin directly pressured Walt Monegan to fire her ex-brother-in-law. There is also an abundance of evidence to suggest that the reasons Governor Palin gave for firing Mr Monegan (Reasons 1-17, described below) were patently false. Given the Governor’s persistent history of bald-faced lying with respect to this narrative, we conclude that her testimony would provide little (if any) factual enlightenment to this investigation. We are therefore ready to issue the following conclusions.”
Yep.
Though, like I said, I’ve got a hunch that the Murlene stuff is going to blow up.
If it does, you’d have to add the line, “And we have found evidence that Palin’s staffers bribed a state contractor.”
More likely they extorted her than bribed her. “You wanna keep your job? Good, then say_____.”
Shit. I gotta go cram all these crime names. Regardless, I was pretty sure if the “incentive” was explicit, it’d be a crime.
I’m sure that low level subordinate will be dealt with harshly.
It’s the way of the world when you get Republican Justics.
-G
That’s an excellent response and I hope that is what happens. If they convene a hearing, or continue an investigation and the accused party refuses to cooperate by testifying, or providing any kind of defense, then the finding needs to be made without that input. Hard for the accused to cry “foul” later if they refuse to defend in the first place.
For my part, I am amazed that there is no general outrage in Alaska that so many people are just plain blowing off subpoenas. (Supeoenae?) Elected officials in particular. Of course I’ve never been there, but can it really be that much of a wild west, “law is for little people” place?
Wait, don’t answer that.
Actually, it is the start of the new way… Bush / Cheney did not like having to abide by laws, so they made their own to suit them. Subpoena’s? They don’t apply. Now Palin is starting a similar trend. It will be very fashionable soon to tell the police to get lost — and they can’t do a blessed thing about it! Imagine… true freedom. No rules — just do it however you want!
Yeah, well, of course it’s good to be King.
Yeah, but just think about it… EVERY man will be king and can make his own rules soon
??? The principle one could extract from your comment would seem to be that only those holding government office would enjoy that immunity. Bush, Cheney, and Palin are not “EVERY man.” Indeed Palin (to go all Pirates of the Carribean on you) is, in fact, a woman.
Anybody got any idea what
BrentMurlene Wilkes had to say when she so appeared?I’m betting on a lawsuit to delay the report’s release. Republicans always tie unfavorable developments up in the court system.
Violative of separation of powers; not sure a court is going to bite off on that one.
Really? They cant just show up, plead irreparable harm, and ask for a TRO?
A court filing an injunction on a legislative process is pretty extraordinary; sure it is possible, but I can’t see it. Now they might prevail upon higher up Legislative authorities to quelch it.
Sorry, I meant just to delay release of the results ’til after the election, not to quash the whole investigation. If they get lucky and draw the right judge, seems like it just might work.
Oh, I understood that. But what jurisdiction does a court have over legislative prerogative? Courts just don’t do that type of thing; I am serious, that would be extraordinary.
Welp, Palin walks into court as a private citizen and sues the Alaska legislative committee claiming that because the investigation is politically motivated, it’s likely to issue a lie as its final report, and if they do that, she will be irreparably harmed in exercise of her Constitutional right to seek (even) higher office. Very novel theory there (transparent horseshit though it so very obviously is). So what does the judge do? Dismiss for failure to state a claim? Probably not. Issue summary judgement on his own steam? Probably needs the defendant to move for that, and that’ll take time, and even then since the claims are novel there is no settled law on the basis of which to grant summary. So there’ll have to be hearings and testimony and that’ll all take time, and any delay helps the Rs. And if she loses the case, what judge is gonna want to be the guy who denied her her TRO? Absent excellent defendants’s counsel, the safest thing for the judge would be to cause a delay in some way or other. Maybe there’s a softer instrument than an order that could be used to achieve some inter-branch comity. So I wouldn’t rule it out.
I’m with bmaz here. I just don’t see this happening. Too much of a separation of powers thing. And more importantly, I think all the work on Palin’s part would be done by non-Alaskan lawyers, and that’s not going to win points with any Alaskan judge.
I think all the work on Palin’s part would be done by non-Alaskan lawyers, and that’s not going to win points with any Alaskan judge.
Non-Alaskan judges are not entitled to appear in an Alaskan Court if they are not member of the Alaskan bar.
Sorry Non-Alaskan lawyers….
Parliamentary Privilege. Courts cannot interfere. This privilege has a better foundation, and almost 300 years of case law, than executive privilege.
It has to be a legislative action to quash any legislative action.
Parliamentary privilege, also known as absolute privilege, is a legal mechanism employed within the legislative bodies of countries whose constitutions are based on the Westminster system. In other legislatures, a similar mechanism is known as parliamentary immunity.
Further, though the legislature of the United States was not modelled on Westminster, the US system of privilege is based on Westminster practice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P….._privilege
And there weren’t “civics” classes in my school.
They might, but I don’t think that’ll play very well. By all accounts, Alaskans are paying close attention to this, and shutting down the investigation would reek of the very corruption that Alaskans have recently been heaving people overboard for. That’s how Palin got the job in the first place.
Right, but in the event it happened, that is the more likely vehicle than a court injunction.
Agree. Sorry, I misunderstood you point.
two words:
prior restraint
ain’t gonna happen
if nixon couldn’t keep the pentagon papers under wrap, what chance does princess caribou have ???
Yup, Alaskans are pretty pissed off their governor let a bunch of outsiders come in and stomp on the investigation.
Given the number of nicely timed leaks, and given that Branchflower seems to be smarter than anyone involved save Ed Calloghan and (maybe) Monegan himself, I’m not positive that would help.
Monegan’s playing his cards quite well, isn’t he? And still sitting on a bunch of e-mails. He’s letting take as much rope as they want.
Or the officiating legislative panel, a majority Repug panel mind you, decides to stamp it Top Secret/Alaska-only and then refuses to make it public.
OT: I’m still not understanding the need for the latest bailout. It now sounds like the Fed (i.e. the taxpayers) are going to give $1 trillion (that we don’t actually have, but I’ve long since given up trying to understand why foreign banks keep lending us money to run up our debt) to bail out a bunch of failed businesses, because if we don’t, no one in the US is going to be able to borrow money ever again.
Um, huh? First of all, that’s pretty much saying, “Capitalism doesn’t work!”
Second of all, if you’re going to throw out a trillion dollars, why not just cut out the failed businesses and have the Fed just lend the money directly to the people who supposedly want it?
And finally, if you’re a foreign bank, why not just cut out the Fed AND the failed businesses, and start lending money directly to American people who supposedly want it? You’re never going to get your money back from the American government, and you’re probably not going to get it back from the failed business, but you might get it back from regular people. Why not just get rid of the middlemen?
The part I’m not understanding is how this “mechanism” stabilizes the valuation of the foreclosed properties. We need to keep them (and the houses around them) from plummeting in value, and one of the best ways to do that would be to stop evicting the people living in them. Note the additional social benefit of less disruption, homelessness, moving of families, etc. and just plain less human suffering. I feel there’s simply got to be some way to use that kind of vast fund to address this part of the problem. USG acquire the defaulted mortgage at discounted price, and maintain a first position when the house is eventually sold? With an automatic readjustment of the term & rate to current market conditions, so the owner can afford to hold on to the property? Something like that. Bailing out the financial-fiction industry without addressing the fundamental valuations seems like a kind of madness.
Reviewing the bets:
[1] “stop evicting the people…less disruption, homelessness, moving of families, etc. and just plain less human suffering”
[2] “Bailing out the financial-fiction industry without addressing the fundamental valuations …a kind of madness”
Considering this is the Bush administration… I’ll see your Hmmm, raise you 800 mmm,mmm,mmm,mmm’s, and go with “madness”.
Don’t get me wrong, fellow commenters, I do hope you’re all right about this.
Staying with the Monday-Friday Public Lie cycle, what’s next? I open the bidding with the following press briefing on Monday, September 22, hosted by McPalin Campaign spokespodperson P Tuckered Outtabounds:
Okay folks, this is hot, and this one’s true, I swear to you on my …what are up we up to? right… the grandmother of my youngest child’s day care bookkeeper.
Over the weekend the Governator was in the throes of wrassling a wolverine with her bare hands when she heard Heart with the song, you know the one, coming out of her cell phone, so while she was holding off the rascal with her free hand and her youngest’s favorite pacifier, the one with the narwhale penis bone, she suddenly recalled re-misremembering why she accepted Walt Monegan’s resignation. So here’s the straight goods and I’m doing this once and then I’ll take two questions and end this pig.
As we now all know, any and all trips outside the State of Alaska require an approval signature of the Govenator or the Lt Govenator, and while it is true that disgraced ex-Commissioner Monegan’s travel authorization does in fact bear the signature of the Lt Govenator [or facsimile thereof] and while that means he technically complied with the law, and while superficially at least the reason he’s given for the trip, which I note we’re hearing for the very first time almost 7 months after the fact, during which he’s never said a single word about this response to any of the numerous other reasons we have provided for his dismissal or whatever, is arguably something someone in his position could or even should be going to Washington to ask for, he sure didn’t say anything to the Govenator about any such “trip”. Questions.
Q: What if he did- could she have maybe forgot?
A: Look, it’s not like she’s 70 or something, or hard of hearing, or her mind’s going. You next.
Q: Is it possible the Govenator may have commented on this in an email?
A: As we’ve told you folks previously, that entry went missing when the porn hackers hacked into her Yahoo porn vault, or hacked through the porn wall in her Yahoo account, and after cleverly deducting she used her birthday for the password, hacked in and downloaded everything and so corrupted all of it with possible airborn internet porn. We don’t know how bad, could be kiddie or porn, but we judged in the interests of national security we couldn’t take the chance. So the bottom line is that none of it could be accessed because its was too dangerous, or its gone missing, and since we can’t look, it might have porn crawling all over it. Okay, Jeff, you get a follow-up, but just one.
Q: So, you’re saying she in fact did write something about it in email?
A: Well, we haven’t actually disclosed that yet, but it’s your words, not ours, and in all candor we really have no way of disputing that, so we’re operating on the assumption that’s what happened, but again: no one can look, its got porn ch… it’s got porn all over it. You in the glasses, you’re next.
Q: There is software available to make duplicate copy of the harddrive and all the data, and from that at least confirm such an email exists, and maybe run it through a filter and retrieve the message or part of it…
A: Time’s up, we gotta get this in before the election, so I’m assuming your question is why we didn’t do that thing you said in these peculiar circumstances. And my answer is I’m sure that was taken into account, but its a judgment call, and its a call that’s left up to the proper expert types, and the judgment call that was made was to take it, take the Govenator’s whole computer station, chair, table, screen, speakers, wires-in-wires-out box, the whole shootin’ match, out to the deepest lake in the state, like it was picked up with a forklift and all the workers were in nuclear safety suits to avoid getting infected, and the state bomb disposal unit dropped in a huge bag full of high explosives, enough to vaporize 20 tons of solid stainless steel, had the whole mess sunk to the bottom, and blew it all up with a remote control device, so it’s gone, all gone….and I just want to thank our heroes in the state bomb squad. Last question; you.
Q: Because … why?
A: The porn was all over it, we couldn’t even be sure it could ever be erased, and we were concerned the Govenator might get a severe attacks of the icks or maybe pregnant again, we had to be 100% sure. Thanks, thats it.
I think princess pandora was planning on screaming WITCH HUNT at the top of her lungs, no matter what the report says
too bad princess pandora subscribes to a church that actually does conduct real life witch hunts
I told ya this palin woman was a walking fucking disaster
you read that right
chicken noodle network or olberman-maddow was reporting that sarah palin was blessed by a preacher that made his name by conducting a witch hunt against some woman in Africa who was using witchcraft to cause car accidents
I shit you not …
I’m good
but not that good
even I could not dream up shit like this
ever seen the movie “Soapdish” ???
we got mr magoo an soapdish sarah
look for princess pandora to “auger in” about Oct 12 or so
it is absolutely amazing how much this women is like dick cheney
she pretends to have competance where none exists, she uses her office for her own personal agenda and not the peoples’, she shoots “game” that cannot escape, she fires anyone and everyone doing their job if she doesn’t think the job should be done, damn the law
she is a clone of cheney, they changed a y to an x
OT – With the Republicans, it’s been Party Over Country.
– Bush and the Republican’s response to 911? Politically Subvert the Rule of Law.
Result: Domestic Surveillance w/o Warrant; Torture; Politicization of Law and Courts.
– Bush and the Republicans want More War? Lie US into Iraq.
Result: Ruined Global Reputation as Peacemakers; an Ashamed, Depressed and Unmotivated Citizenry; a Strategic Loss of Money that Can Only come out of Basic Governmental Services for Generations.
– Bush and the Republicans think his Cronies should Win, too? Let the Money People – Real Estate and Financial Services – run Un-regulated, Knowing What They Were Doing was Eating the Foundation of Our Financial Security like Greedy Termites in the Wood Pile of Our Savings and Retirements.
Result: The Wood Pile is being handed back to US as the Shitpile, with barely a mumbled ‘uh, sorry.’
Let’s get to Root Causes in This Election – It’s not just Bush, it’s the Republican Brand that has driven US beyond all sensible Controls that would be Exercised in the Prudent Care of All.
Bush and the Republicans have taken the Greed, Immorality and Guilt-Ridden Suspicions of the Republican Worldview and Ideology, and Projected it on US loudly in the form of Accusations of Whining, Lack of Patriotism, and Mental Weakness.
But
We don’t have to accept that characterization of US. In fact, we can Reject it emphatically by Voting All the Republicans Out.
They aren’t US. They don’t speak for US. They simply Operate as a Block – for Themselves.
And, they’ve just about Ruined everything, while telling US it’s our own fault – that We deserve it – and now the Roof is about to fall in on Everyone, Them, too.
Let’s cut straight to the Root Issue of Our Long Suffering Patience and Vote Out the Power Abusing Ideologues – Let’s put an End to the Party Over Country Republicans.
It’s time for Rational and Sensible People to Prevail over the Believers in a Failed Agenda.
Wake Up, America!
I have to say that I like the idea of simply ignoring the stonewall and issuing a report. I’d go with something like this: “The governor broke her promise to co-operate with this investigation, and multiple witnesses broke the law and ignored subpoenas that were issued to them
Frank – I like your approach, but I don’t understand how all these people can get away with “blowing off” subpoenas. Why aren’t they being arrested?
it is absolutely amazing how much this women is like dick cheney
Key differences:
1) she’s a better shot
2) his daughter is less likely to get pregnant
You are funny!