T r o o p e r G a t e

QueEx · Sep 5, 2008

What is TrooperGate?

This post from an Alaska based blog known as "Mudflats" which prides itself on, "Tiptoeing Through the Muck of Alaskan Politics" explains:

Sarah Palin is currently under an ethics investigation by the Alaska state legislature. The details of this investigation read like a trashy novel, and I suspect that the players will soon have new found celebrity on the national stage. I’ll try to explain for all you non-Alaskans who suddenly have good reason to want to know more about Sarah Palin. For those of you not interested in trashy novels, feel free to skip ahead. Here it is…what we in Alaska call “TrooperGate”.

Sarah Palin’s sister Molly married a guy named Mike Wooten who is an Alaska State Trooper. Mike and Molly had a rocky marriage. When the marriage broke up, there was a bitter custody fight that is still ongoing. During the custody investigation, all sorts of things were brought up about Wooten including the fact that he had illegally shot a moose (yes folks this is Alaska), driven drunk, and used a taser (on the test setting, he reminds us) on his 11-year old stepson, who supposedly had asked to see what it felt like. While Wooten has turned out to be a less than stellar figure, the fact that Palin’s father accompanied him on the infamous moose hunt, and that many of the dozens of charges brought up by the Palin family happened long before they were ever reported smacked of desperate custody fight. Wooten’s story is that he was basically stalked by the family.

After all this, Wooten was investigated and disciplined on two counts and allowed to kept his position with the troopers. Enter Walt Monegan, Palin’s appointed new chief of the Department of Public Safety and head of the troopers. Monegan was beloved by the troopers, did a bang-up job with minimal funding and suddenly got axed. Palin was out of town and Monegan got “offered another job” (aka fired) with no explanation to Alaskans. Pressure was put on the governor to give details, because rumors started to swirl around the fact that the highly respected Monegan was fired because he refused to fire the aforementioned Mike Wooten. Palin vehemently denied ever talking to Monegan or pressuring Monegan in any way to fire Wooten, or that anyone on her staff did. Over the weeks it has come out that not only was pressure applied, there were literally dozens of conversations in which pressure was applied to fire him. Monegan has testified to this fact, spurring an ongoing investigation by the Alaska state legislature. But, beforethis investigation got underway, Palin sent the Alaska State Attorney General out to do some investigative work of his own so she could find out in advance what the real investigation was going to find. (No, I’m not making this up). The AG interviewed several people, unbeknownst to the actual appointed investigator or the Legislature! Palin’s investigation of herself uncovered a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten non-firing. Todd Palin (governor’s husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin’s office while she was away. Bailey is now on paid administrative leave.

As if this weren’t enough, Monegan’s appointed replacement Chuck Kopp, turns out to have been the center of his own little scandal. He received a letter of reprimand and was reassigned after sexual harassment allegations by a former coworker who didn’t like all the unwanted kissing and hugging in the office. Was he vetted? Obviously not. When he was questioned about all this, his comment was that no one had asked him and he thought they all knew. Kopp, defiant, still claimed to have done nothing wrong and said to the press that there was no way he was stepping down from his new position. Twenty four hours later, he stepped down. Later it was uncovered that he received a $10,000 severance package for his two weeks on the job from Palin. Monegan got nothing.

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/page/2/

QueEx · Sep 5, 2008

<center>Palin files ethics complaint
against self in 'troopergate'

Governor Palin's ploy to try to get
the Alaska Legislature to drop its probe</center>

Anchorage Daily News
By Lisa Demer
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Gov. Sarah Palin wants a state board to review the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan -- taking the unusual step of making an ethics complaint against herself.

Her lawyer sent an "ethics disclosure" Monday night to Attorney General Talis Colberg. The governor asked that it go to the three-person Personnel Board as a complaint. While ethics complaints are usually confidential, Palin wants the matter open.

The lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, also asked the state legislature to drop its own investigation into the Monegan matter. He says the Personnel Board has jurisdiction over ethics.

A senator running the investigation immediately refused.

The 13-page document gives Palin's view of a controversy that's dogged her for weeks in Alaska. Questions about whether she or others in her family or administration pressured Monegan to fire her ex-brother-in-law, state Trooper Mike Wooten, are now getting intense national attention with her newfound prominence on the national stage. Republican Sen. John McCain announced Friday that she's his pick to be vice president.

Under state law, the board must hire an independent counsel for complaints against the governor to determine whether evidence of a violation of the state ethics act exists.

"Governor Palin believes it will find no conceivable violation of the Ethics Act," her complaint says. She wants the investigation "to put these matters to rest."

The legislature plans to go forward with its investigation, said Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and former state prosecutor who is project director for the case.

That investigation isn't just examining potential abuse of power by the governor, but also others in her administration, French said.

"We're going to proceed. If they want to proceed, that's perfectly within their right but it doesn't diminish our right to do so," he said.

The legislature's special counsel Steve Branchflower so far has not been able to depose either Palin or her husband, Todd. Van Flein indicated the governor likely will not agree to a deposition unless lawmakers turn the matter over to the Personnel Board.

"Assuming you agree to submit to proper jurisdictional process, we can check the Governor's schedule to see when she and the First Gentleman are available for an interview," Van Flein wrote.

He also warned that all communications need to go through the lawyers. He said he had recently learned that Branchflower tried to call Todd Palin directly "on a secure and confidential line. This represents a serious security breach that we may be obligated to report to the Secret Service."

This isn't the first time Palin has lodged a complaint that went before the state Personnel Board.

In late 2004, the former Wasilla mayor joined then state Rep. Eric Croft, an Anchorage Democrat, to seek an investigation into whether then Attorney General Gregg Renkes broke the law through his investments in an energy company that stood to benefit from a state trade deal.

In the days after he resigned in February 2005, Renkes settled with the board and the Palin-Croft complaint was dismissed.

Tom Daniel, an Anchorage labor and employment lawyer hired by the board in the Renkes case, took a quick look at Palin's complaint Tuesday.

"It appears that the Governor has filed an ethics complaint against herself. ... This is very unusual because ethics complaints typically are filed against others," Daniel wrote in an e-mail responding to a Daily News query.

Asked whether the personnel board could take the investigation away from the legislature -- as Palin wants to do -- Daniel answered: "I've never looked at that issue, but I can't see why filing a complaint with the personnel board would deprive the legislature of the right to conduct its own investigation."

The ethics disclosure echoes points made in a four-page backgrounder on the Wooten matter released by the McCain/Palin campaign. Did Van Flein write the background paper on Wooten for the campaign? He didn't answer that question when asked in an e-mail Tuesday evening.

Wooten was married to Palin's sister, Molly McCann, and as recently as this summer, they were still struggling over child custody and visitation.

Among key claims in Palin's complaint:

-- Special Agent Bob Cockrell of the governor's security detail told Todd Palin to let Monegan know about Wooten's threats against Chuck Heath, who is Palin's father and was Wooten's father-in-law.

-- Monegan never told the governor or Todd Palin that Wooten had been disciplined over complaints brought by the family that included tasering his stepson, illegally shooting a moose and telling others that Heath would "eat a f***ing lead bullet" if he helped his daughter get an attorney for the divorce. Wooten ultimately was suspended for five days by troopers but the family says they only learned that when the conflict spilled into public after Monegan's firing. In her complaint, Palin calls the suspension "a slap on the wrist."

-- Recently, Wooten's supervisor intervened when he wouldn't return the children after a visit, the complaint says. Wooten warned his ex-wife he was going to get her and Palin, the complaint says. "There is evidence suggesting that Wooten was following the governor," it says.

Palin is facing another ethics complaint, filed by a former state employee and political activist alleging her office used improper influence to award a state job.

Van Flein is a private lawyer with expertise in employment law hired by the Department of Law because of a potential conflict of interest by Attorney General Talis Colberg, who had contacted Monegan about Wooten. Van Flein is representing the governor's office though some Palin staff have their own lawyers.

Van Flein donated to Palin's campaign for governor in 2006, but he also donated to Democrats.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/51592.html

QueEx · Sep 5, 2008

<center>Palin aide skips deposition
in 'troopergate' probe</center>

Anchorage Daily News
By Lisa Demer
Thursday, September 4, 2008

One of Gov. Sarah Palin's top aides was supposed to be interviewed under oath Wednesday as a key witness in the ongoing investigation into her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. But the aide, Frank Bailey, abruptly backed out amid what his lawyer said is uncertainty over jurisdiction.

"I canceled that," Bailey's lawyer, Greg Grebe of Anchorage, said Wednesday. "I'd say about 6 o'clock last night I learned that the governor's office was contesting the jurisdiction of the Legislature to handle this matter. It's my understanding that they believe the jurisdiction is properly with the personnel department. I can't make a judgment or a call on that."

His client will cooperate with whomever ultimately is in charge of the investigation, Grebe said.

"I don't want him to be a political football being used by one side or the other and being inconvenienced in all of this hoopla. I want it done once and I want it done right," the lawyer said.

The state Legislative Council, a bipartisan panel of senators and representatives, ordered an investigation that is supposed to wrap up by Oct. 31 into whether Palin's administration abused power in the dismissal of Monegan. The heart of the matter is whether Palin, her staff or family pressured Monegan to fire her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, and then whether Palin fired her commissioner when the trooper stayed on the job. Retired state prosecutor Steve Branchflower was brought in as special counsel.

Monegan has told the Daily News that Palin sent him two or three e-mails discussing Wooten and adding to the pressure.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Monegan showed Palin's e-mails to the paper, but declined to provide copies. The story says Palin's e-mails pointed out problems with Wooten's continued employment and ridiculed a trooper investigation into Wooten's conduct.

"It was a joke, the whole year long 'investigation' of him," Palin wrote in a Feb. 7, 2007, e-mail, according to the Post. "This is the same trooper who's out there today telling people the new administration is going to destroy the trooper organization, and that he'd 'never work for that b****', Palin'.)"

That e-mail came a few weeks after Palin's husband, Todd, met with Monegan to press the case for action against Wooten based on a series of incidents including illegally shooting a moose, Tasering his stepson and drinking while driving his trooper vehicle, the newspaper said.

Palin's note recounted the transgressions, including his killing of the cow moose under his wife's permit, according to the Post. When the moose was killed, back in 2003, Palin's sister Molly McCann was married to Wooten and she drew the permit.

"He's still bragging about it in my hometown and after another cop confessed to witnessing the kill, the trooper was 'investigated' for over a year and merely given a slap on the wrist," the e-mail said, according to the Post.

That appears to contradict a background paper recently released by the McCain-Palin campaign that says the family never knew that Wooten had been disciplined, which is one reason Todd kept pressing the point.

Palin says she never pressured anybody, doesn't know that anyone on her staff did, and wasn't aware of what Todd was up to. She has called Wooten a dangerous "rogue trooper" and says that any contacts about him were legitimate. Monegan was terminated because of differences over the budget, she says.

Thomas Van Flein, an Anchorage lawyer being paid by the state to represent the governor, said he thinks only the state Personnel Board has the authority to look into what he considers an ethics matter involving the governor. He wants the Legislature to drop its investigation.

The governor is now running for vice president alongside Republican Sen. John McCain. Is the campaign calling the shots?

"I am making the legal strategy for the governor. I have a legal team. We conduct our own strategy internally. I am not working for the McCain campaign and they are not working for me," Van Flein said.

Still, questioning the Legislature's jurisdiction could tie up the case in court and delay a resolution. Van Flein said he's trying to get it sorted out this week so that doesn't happen.

Van Flein says the legislative investigation is like "a secret grand jury" and that's one of his problems with it.

Sen. Hollis French, a Democrat from Anchorage and the project's director, said the Legislature has the right to investigate and that he intends to push on. Both he and Branchflower are former state prosecutors.

"Stephen is working hard over the next two weeks to do a bunch of interviews. ... This certainly will not help him get his work done on time," French said of Bailey's cancellation.

French said he's consulting with Republican legislative leaders. The process will be fair to Palin, he said.

Palin filed an ethics complaint against herself to get the matter in front of the Personnel Board.

Nicki Neal, director of the state Division of Personnel and Labor Relations, said Wednesday that the board will meet soon in executive session -- closed to the public -- to begin its work. Palin had asked for the ethics case to be open. Neal said she'll check into how that relates to the board meetings.

Bailey, the governor's director of boards and commissions with a $78,500 annual salary, has been on paid leave since Aug. 19 as a result of what Palin has called a "smoking gun" conversation with a trooper lieutenant about Wooten. He is paying for his own lawyer.

In the phone call, which was recorded by troopers, Bailey told Lt. Rodney Dial that "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, 'Why on earth hasn't this, why is this guy still representing the department?' He's a horrible recruiting tool, you know."

Palin has said Bailey wasn't speaking on her behalf, and Bailey has said the same thing. The phone call doesn't prove her staff members were pushing troopers and Monegan to get Wooten fired, she has said.

Bailey will cooperate, once it's clear who's in charge, Grebe said.

"No. 1, he's still an employee of the state," Grebe said. "No . 2, he's stated publicly what his position was, which is that no one put him up to making the phone call. Sarah Palin was not involved. He is going to say the same thing under oath. This is just to try to make sure we are going through the proper legal proceedings."

Palin has made repeated public statements that she'll cooperate, and that hasn't changed at this point, Van Flein says.

What if the Legislature won't drop its investigation? "Haven't crossed that bridge yet," Van Flein said.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/51741.html

QueEx · Sep 5, 2008

Mike Wooten, the Ex-Brother-in-Law,
Alaska State Trooper, talks:

Part 1
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_7YWNKj3Y50&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_7YWNKj3Y50&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

`

Part 2
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d1ZZxGMCkNM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d1ZZxGMCkNM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

`

QueEx · Sep 11, 2008

<center>Judge warned Palin in 2005
to back off brother-in-law's job</center>

CNN
September 10, 2008

CNN) -- An Alaska judge warned Gov. Sarah Palin's family against trying to get her then-brother-in-law fired, according to court records.

That warning came long before the controversy over her dismissal of the brother-in-law's boss, the state's public safety commissioner, records show.

Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, is battling allegations she and her advisers pressured Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire her sister's husband, State Trooper Mike Wooten.

Palin's sister, Molly McCann, and Wooten were in the process of getting a divorce when the judge hearing the couple's case said McCann's family appeared to be putting Wooten's job at risk at a time when he would be required to pay child support.

"It appears for the world that Ms. McCann and her family have decided to take after the guy's livelihood, that whatever who did what to whom has overridden good judgment," Superior Court Judge John Suddock said during an October 2005 hearing. "Aesop told us not to slay the goose that lays the golden egg. For whatever reason, people are trying to slay the goose here, and it tends to diminish his earning capacity."

At the time, Palin was a private citizen and would not become governor until 2006. In complaints filed with the state police, she and other relatives had accused Wooten of threatening her family during the divorce.

Suddock was in the process of settling the couple's property and child-support arrangements in the 2005 hearing. The judge said his decision might have been different had Wooten's continued employment with the state police been more certain.

"The plaintiff's table has created a situation where that is a very fragile outcome," he said.

Wooten's union representative testified that the trooper was the subject of a "constant stream" of complaints from his ex-wife's family. "If things don't change, Mike's career is in jeopardy," the union rep said.

"My advice to Mike was to find another job," said John Cyr, now executive director of the Public Safety Employees Association. "I think he needs, career-wise, to look for work elsewhere."

CNN obtained audio recordings of the hearing from the court clerk's office in Anchorage, Alaska. Roberta Erwin, the attorney who represented McCann, declined comment on the case Wednesday, and other representatives of the governor did not immediately return phone calls.

Wooten was suspended for five days in March 2006, after state police commanders determined he had used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson "in a training capacity," drove his patrol car while drinking beer and illegally shot a moose using his wife's hunting permit.

In a February 2008 hearing over new custody issues, Wooten briefly complained that "disparagement" by his ex-wife's family was continuing.

Complaints about Wooten from Palin and her family have been under scrutiny since Gov. Palin's July firing of Monegan, whose duties included management of the state police force. After his dismissal, Monegan said he was fired because he refused to succumb to pressure from the governor's office to fire Wooten, and his allegations have led to an investigation by the state Legislature.

Palin has denied any wrongdoing, saying the commissioner was removed because of disagreements over budget issues. Her attorneys have called Wooten a "rogue trooper" and said no one in the governor's family knew of his suspension until after Monegan's dismissal.

Spokesmen for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign have said the legislative probe has become a "political circus" since McCain tapped Palin as his running mate in August.

Palin originally pledged to cooperate with the investigation and disclosed that members of her administration had contacted state police officials nearly two dozen times to discuss Wooten. But last week, she asked the state personnel board to conduct its own probe, and a string of witnesses has failed to show up at scheduled depositions with the investigator hired by the Legislature.

Last week, Cyr's union filed its own complaint against Palin and top aides, accusing them of improperly attempting to use confidential information from Wooten's personnel files against him. The McCain campaign says Wooten agreed to release his files during the divorce proceedings, and the information was in the public domain.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/palin.investigation/index.html

QueEx · Sep 11, 2008

Palin administration may
fight subpoenas in court

By GENE JOHNSON
The Associated Press

Published: September 11th, 2008 03:42 PM
Last Modified: September 11th, 2008 03:43 PM

Gov. Sarah Palin's administration is threatening legal action to block any subpoenas by the Alaska Legislature as part of its investigation into whether she abused her authority in trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.

Click for the full story

`

[hide]
In a letter to lawmakers, an assistant attorney general wrote that the administration was prepared to go to court to quash the subpoenas of Department of Administration staff if they're issued as expected Friday. The investigation, known as "Troopergate," took on new significance after Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee, selected Palin as his running mate.

However, the letter also suggested that if lawmakers agree that the governor has legal authority to designate staff to review confidential personnel files, the staff members will voluntarily speak with the Legislature's investigator - no subpoenas necessary.

"If the Legislative Council will acknowledge in writing its agreement ... the Department of Law will drop its objections and the depositions may proceed without subpoenas," Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Barnhill wrote in the letter, which was dated Tuesday and released Thursday.

Sen. Kim Elton, who chairs the Legislative Council, was on a plane and could not be reached for comment Thursday. An aide, Jesse Kiehl, said: "He's read the letter. I don't believe that we have written back."

The council voted unanimously in July to launch an investigation into whether Palin fired her public safety commissioner because he refused to fire Trooper Mike Wooten, who went through a messy divorce from Palin's sister. The issue, essentially, is whether Palin used her power try to settle a personal score.

Palin has said the commissioner, Walt Monegan, was fired over disagreements about budget priorities.

Early this month, Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, was quoted in a news report as saying that if the governor's office obtained confidential information from Wooten's personnel file "it would be a violation of state law."

The attorney general's office disagrees with that interpretation and says the governor, as the employer of state workers, can designate her staff to review confidential files. Barnhill called French's statement "an improper threat of potential prosecution" that was "totally inconsistent" with the state constitutional right to fair and just treatment in legislative and executive investigations.

Barnhill added that if any administration officials disclosed information from Wooten's personnel file to people outside the administration, that could violate the State Personnel Act.

"At this point, the Department of Law knows of no evidence that suggests that any Department of Administration employees violated the State Personnel Act in handling Trooper Wooten's personnel file," he wrote.

One administration official, Frank Bailey, was recorded calling an Alaska State Troopers lieutenant and discussing confidential information about Wooten. In a deposition taken by Palin's attorney, he testified that he never saw Wooten's file, but instead received the information from the governor's husband, Todd Palin.

On the advice of Barnhill and their own attorneys, Bailey and six other witnesses canceled their scheduled depositions following French's statement. French responded by promising to issue subpoenas.

The House and Senate Judiciary Committees were scheduled to hold a joint meeting Friday to decide whether to issue them. A majority of either committee can do so.

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/523291.html

[/hide]

QueEx · Sep 16, 2008

<center>Palin won't meet with 'Troopergate' investigator
Campaign says governor won't cooperate because investigation is 'tainted'</center>

Associated Press
Mon., Sept. 15, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A campaign spokesman says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't speak with an investigator hired by lawmakers to look into the firing of her public safety commissioner.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan told a news conference Monday that the governor, the Republican nominee for vice president, will not cooperate as long as the investigation "remains tainted." He said he doesn't know whether Palin's husband would challenge a subpoena issued to compel his cooperation.

The campaign insists the investigation has been hijacked by Democrats. It says it can prove Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan was fired because of insubordination on budget issues -- not because he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced Palin's sister.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26727937

QueEx · Sep 16, 2008

<center>
John McCain Campaign Tries to Quell 'Troopergate'

John McCain campaign releases Palin adminstration
e-mails in seeking to quell 'Troopergate'</center>

Edward O'Callaghan, left, and Megan Stapleton,
spokespersons with the McCain campaign, answer
questions concerning the firing of former public
safety commissioner Walt Monegan during a news
conference in Anchorage, Alaska Monday Sept.
15, 2008. Lawyers for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin have
released e-mails detailing what they say is the real
reason she dismissed Walt Monegan, the public safety
commissioner whose firing prompted the "Troopergate"
controversy. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)
(AP)

By GENE JOHNSON Associated Press Writer
ANCHORAGE, Alaska September 16, 2008 (AP)

The presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain is trying to put to rest the ethical controversy that's come to be known as "Troopergate," releasing e-mails supporting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's contention that she dismissed her public safety commissioner over budget disagreements, not because he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law.

And, the campaign says, Palin is unlikely to speak with an investigator hired by the state legislature to look into the matter.

Among the e-mails released was one of farewell written by the public safety commissioner himself, Walt Monegan, when he was fired in July. In it, he suggested the governor had reason to believe she had lost his support, and urged his former colleagues to communicate better with her.

"For anyone to lead effectively they must have the support of their team, and I had waited too long outside her door for her to believe that I supported her," he wrote. "Please, choose a different path."

The controversy erupted in the weeks following the firing, as it emerged that Palin, her husband, Todd, and several high-level staffers had contacted Monegan about state trooper Mike Wooten, who had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin's sister before she became governor. While Monegan says no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire Wooten, he says they didn't have to: There was nothing subtle about the repeated contacts.

In July, the four Democrats and eight Republicans on Alaska's Legislative Council voted unanimously to investigate the circumstances of Monegan's dismissal. Although Monegan was an at-will employee who could be fired for almost any reason, lawmakers wanted to see whether Palin tried to use her office to settle a personal score with Wooten.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee voted Friday to issue subpoenas to 13 people, including Palin's husband, to compel cooperation with the investigation. The campaign said it didn't know if Todd Palin planned to challenge his subpoena.

The governor has not been subpoenaed, but the investigator hired by the legislature, Steve Branchflower, said Friday he is interested in speaking with her. Campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said that was unlikely as long as the investigation "remains tainted."

Though the governor initially said she'd cooperate, after she became McCain's running mate in late July, her lawyer sought to have the three-member state Personnel Board take over, alleging that public statements made by the Democratic chair of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Hollis French, indicated the probe was politically motivated.

French had said the results of the investigation could constitute an "October surprise" for the McCain campaign. He later apologized. The campaign also insists that French, Branchflower and Monegan are friends, even though the men say they only know each other professionally and have never socialized.

Democrats charged that the McCain campaign was trying to stall the investigation.

"Rather than cooperating with the investigation, the Republican presidential campaign is doing everything it can to stall and smear," said Patti Higgins, chairwoman of the Alaska Democratic Party.

McCain campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton denigrated Monegan at a news conference Monday, accusing the three-decade cop of "insubordination," "obstructionist conduct" and a "brazen refusal" to follow proper channels for requesting money.

When Monegan was fired, the governor offered to let him head the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Asked why someone with a history of insubordination would be given such a position, Stapleton said that without having to deal with a budget, Monegan would be able to focus on alcohol abuse issues.

The governor "respects the fact that he was respected in the community," she said.

Thomas Van Flein, a lawyer for the governor's office, cited the newly released e-mails Monday in asking the Personnel Board to find no probable cause for an ethics investigation.

In an interview Monday night, Monegan said Palin never raised concerns about his management. In fact, at an event in May, she singled him out and praised his efforts to reduce violence against native women.

"In my time as a commissioner, the governor has never talked to me about complaints about my efforts," Monegan said.

He said all he meant to convey in his farewell letter was that because he was being fired, the governor must have believed he didn't support her, and to the extent his communication skills were to blame, others should avoid his mistake.

The e-mails made clear that some Palin staffers believed Monegan and the Department of Public Safety worked outside normal channels. One was written in May by Randy Ruaro, then a special assistant to Palin, to the governor's budget director, and concerned efforts to pay for and build a crime lab.

"I FEEL YOUR PAIN! DPS is constantly going off the reservation," he wrote.

In February, Monegan signed a public letter of support for a $3.6 million project designed to keep troubled teens off the street in Anchorage — even though the governor had vetoed the project last year and hadn't included money for it in her budget this year.

"I am stunned and amazed — do you know anything about this?" budget director Karen Rehfeld wrote to two other high-level staffers when she learned of the letter.

"Think about that: one of the governor's own cabinet members publicly contradicting her veto decision," Stapleton said.

Monegan acknowledged he shouldn't have signed the letter, because it put the governor in the awkward position of defending her veto decision. But he said he thought of the letter as simply making another run at getting funding for a worthy project.

The last straw, the McCain campaign said, was in July, when Monegan planned to travel to Washington to seek federal money for a plan to assign troopers, judges and prosecutors who could exclusively handle sexual assault cases — one of the state's most intractable crime problems.

In a July 7 e-mail, John Katz, the governor's special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: The governor hadn't agreed the money should be sought, and the request was "out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Sen. (Ted) Stevens."

Four days later, Monegan was fired. He said he had kept others in the administration fully apprised of his plans to go to Washington.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=5810700

QueEx · Sep 18, 2008

<center>Todd Palin refuses to testify
in 'troopergate' probe</center>

By MATT VOLZ
Alaska Daily News
Via The Associated Press
Thursday, September 18, 2008

Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and a key lawmaker said today that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.

Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. McCain-Palin presidential campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan announced today that Todd Palin would not appear, because he no longer believes the Legislature's investigation is legitimate.

Sarah Palin First Said She Would Cooperate

Sarah Palin initially welcomed the investigation of accusations that she dismissed the state's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper. "Hold me accountable," she said.

But that Was Before she Changed Her Mind

But she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate. The McCain campaign dispatched a legal team to Alaska including O'Callaghan, a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York to bolster Palin's local lawyer.

Earlier this week, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said the governor, who was not subpoenaed, declined to participate in the investigation and said Palin administration employees who have been subpoenaed would not appear.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, said the McCain campaign is doing all it can to prevent the Legislature from completing a report on whether the GOP's vice presidential nominee abused her power as governor.

Wielechowski, a member of the panel that summoned the witnesses, said the witnesses can avoid testifying for months without penalty and that court action to force them to appear sooner is unlikely.

Palin fired Walt Monegan as public safety commissioner in July. It later emerged that Palin, her husband, Todd, and several high-level staffers had contacted Monegan about state trooper Mike Wooten. Palin maintains she fired Monegan over budget disagreements, not because he wouldn't dismiss her former brother-in-law.

Wooten had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin's sister before Palin became governor. While Monegan says no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire Wooten, he says their repeated contacts made it clear they wanted Wooten gone.

Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican foe of Palin, said Wednesday that the investigation is still on track.

"The original purpose of the investigation was to bring out the truth. Nothing has changed," she said.

Without the testimony, the retired prosecutor hired to head the investigation could still release a report in October as scheduled, based on the evidence he's already gathered. As of today, Steve Branchflower had interviewed or deposed 17 of the 33 people he had identified as potential witnesses in the probe.

The Legislature does not have the leverage to compel any witness to testify before Nov. 4, said Wielechowski, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Wielechowski said he did not know whether Branchflower has enough material for a complete and fair report with so few witnesses. But he said delaying the probe, which began as a bipartisan effort, would only politicize the matter more.

"It would be to appease the McCain camp," Wielechowski said. "They're doing everything they can to delay."

Ignoring a legislative subpoena is punishable by a fine up to $500 and up to six months in jail under Alaska law. But courts are reluctant to intervene in legislative matters and the full Legislature must be in session to bring contempt charges, Wielechowski said. The Legislature is not scheduled to convene until January.

http://www.adn.com/1536/story/530493.html

QueEx · Sep 21, 2008

<center>
Palin's Troubling Trooper Gate

At first Palin told reporters, "We have absolutely nothing to hide"
and "we would never prohibit or be less than enthusiastic about
any kind of investigation." But, after McCain's campaign took
over her damage control, the probe suddenly bore the "taint"
of political motivation, even though Alaska lawmakers had
voted unanimously to investigate Monegan's dismissal.</center>

By Clarence Page
September 21, 2008

Enough about Sarah Palin. What about John McCain? What does McCain think of Palin?

There's no question that the Alaska governor has been a huge energizing asset to McCain's presidential bid. Conservatives, in particular, who sounded pretty ho-hum about McCain until she came along, now sound willing to stroll over hot coals to help send the Arizona senator to the White House -- as long as he has Palin with him.

But, I wonder, how well does McCain know his running mate? Does he really think she is the open-government, let-the-sunshine-in reformer that he says she is? If so, does that delight him and his campaign advisors, or does it make them nervous?

These questions are provoked by the way his campaign has been helping her to throw a cloak of silence over the Alaska investigation now known to the world as "Troopergate."

The probe, initiated with Palin's blessing and a unanimous vote by Alaska lawmakers, is trying to find out whether the governor abused her power in trying to remove Mike Wooten, who divorced Palin's sister, as a state trooper.

The details are about as sordid as any other messy divorce case, although enriched with a dramatic blend of "Northern Exposure" and "Smokey and the Bandit." Palin's former brother-in-law is alleged to have threatened her father, used a Taser on his stepson, drank alcohol in his patrol car and illegally shot a moose. Palin, herself a famous moose hunter, is alleged to have wanted Wooten fired so badly that she dismissed Walt Monegan, the state's public safety commissioner, after he refused to do it. Both Palin and Wooten, as the old saying goes, deny the allegations and the alligators.

Without raking any deeper into the personal muck, what's most important to the rest of us are two questions:

1.) Did Palin force out the public safety commissioner because he would not fire her ex-brother-in-law?

2.) Did the governor, her husband, Todd Palin, or her staff improperly obtain confidential information about Trooper Wooten along the way?

To her credit, Palin welcomed the inquiry, at first. But things changed after she became McCain's running mate.

At first Palin told reporters, "We have absolutely nothing to hide" and "we would never prohibit or be less than enthusiastic about any kind of investigation." But, after McCain's campaign took over her damage control, the probe suddenly bore the "taint" of political motivation, even though Alaska lawmakers had voted unanimously to investigate Monegan's dismissal.

Haven't we heard this soap opera before? Suddenly Troopergate is taking on echoes of stonewalling by the current White House. Suddenly we are reminded of President Bush's unexplained dismissal and replacement of seven U. S. attorneys in late 2006 -- and repeated refusals by Bush political advisor Karl Rove and others to honor congressional subpoenas.

McCain's campaign last week announced that Palin similarly was "unlikely" to cooperate with the Troopergate investigation. Her husband, Todd Palin, announced that he would refuse to honor his subpoena to testify. The matter appears to be headed for a court fight that will push it well past Election Day. That's a break for the McCain campaign, which fears a self-inflicted October-surprise wound. But it leaves the rest of us in the dark.

As the Anchorage Daily News editorialized about Palin, "Whatever happened to the 'open and transparent' administration she promised Alaskans?" Similarly we in the lower 49 states might ask what this sudden stonewalling tells us about the reform-minded, house cleaning "mavericks" that the McCain-Palin team vows to bring to Washington?

Yes, campaign 2008 needs to be about McCain versus his Democratic opponent Barack Obama, not their running mates. That means these questions about Palin are really questions about McCain and his judgment. Either way, McCain's campaign is not answering the questions.

We can only wonder what the McCain campaign would be saying if Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, were ignoring subpoenas in either of their home states.

Or how much more Republicans would want to know about Obama's wife if she was as deeply involved in his decision-making as Governor Palin's "First Dude" Todd is involved with hers.

For those of us who live outside Alaska, the Troopergate saga is less about the scandal than about what appears to be a convenient cover-up by the McCain-Palin campaign. It makes me wonder what kind of "change" we can expect from a candidate whose campaign is offering us so much of what's wrong with Washington now.

Page is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist specializing in urban issues. He is based in Washington, D.C. E-mail: cptime@aol.com

Copyright 2008, Tribune Media Services Inc.

QueEx · Oct 3, 2008

<center>Alaska judge refuses to halt troopergate probe</center>

Anchorage Daily News
By Sean Cockerham
Thursday, October 2, 2008

An Anchorage judge today refused to halt the Legislature's investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin and denied the state attorney general's attempt to throw out legislative subpoenas.

Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski heard arguments from both sides Thursday morning and ruled just before 5 p.m. Alaska time.

"I think it's great. It's a big day for the state of Alaska," said Peter Maassen, the lawyer representing the Legislative Council, which ordered the investigation.

Maassen said he expected the other side to attempt a last-minute appeal to the state Supreme Court.

It's last-minute because the investigator hired by the Legislative Council, Steve Branchflower, is to present his report in a week. Branchflower is looking into Palin's dismissal of her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, and whether she improperly pressured him to fire a state trooper divorced from her sister. There is intense national interest in the outcome now that Palin is the Republican nominee for vice president.

Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said he didn't know whether he'd appeal or if he'll now advise the subpoenaed state officals to cooperate with the investigation. He said he needed to consult with them.

"I'm going to talk to the clients before I talk to you," he said.

Five Republican state legislators sued to stop the investigation, and Colberg, a Palin appointee, asked the judge to throw out the legislative subpoenas. The governor's husband, Todd, and nearly a dozen state officials have refused to honor the subpoeanas ordering them to testify, and they face the threat of possible jail time.

Thomas Van Flein, the Anchorage attorney representing both Todd and Sarah Palin, watched the court hearing today. He said in an interview afterward that, if the judge refused to throw out the subpoenas, he would expect Todd Palin to testify after all.

"Short of appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court, which no one has talked about, I don't see why we wouldn't just have Todd testify," he said.

Anchorage Democratic Sen. Hollis French, who is overseeing the investigation, said he would let Branchflower decide how to deal with potential testimony from anyone who previously defied the subpoenas but now wants to cooperate.

The governor initially said she'd cooperate with the Legislature's investigation but changed course after her nomination as vice president, saying it's politicized and that the state Personnel Board has jurisdiction over whether she did anything wrong. The McCain-Palin campaign said the Palins are cooperating in the Personnel Board investigation, but it is out of public view and might not be done before the Nov. 4 election.

Today's hearing in a small courtroom downtown was packed with reporters from around the nation, as well as state legislators and local lawyers fascinated with the case.

Maassen, the lawyer representing the Legislative Council, told the judge if the Alaska Legislature doesn't have the power to investigate the governor, it's the only one in the U.S. that doesn't. He said it would have seismic consequences for the separation of powers between the branches of government if the judge were to shut down the investigation.

"Is there anybody in this courtroom who really wants to live in a state in which the executive (branch) is accountable only to the executive? I would think, I used to think, that the answer to that would be a resounding no," Maassen said in his argument.

Kevin Clarkson, a lawyer for the five Republican state legislators who sued, argued that Alaska's Constitution is unique in that it guarantees "fair and just" treatment of people who are under investigation by the Legislature.

"The manner in which the investigation is being conducted, the individuals by whom it is being conducted and the timing within which it is being conducted, violates the fundamental affirmative individual constitutional right to fair and just treatment," he said.

The bipartisan Legislative Council voted unanimously in late July to order the investigation. But Clarkson argued the Democratic lawmakers leading the effort have shown, through actions and statements to the press, that they support Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and Monegan, the public safety commissioner who Palin dismissed in July. He also pointed to statements by French, who is overseeing the investigation, that impeachment is a possibility and that Palin could face a damaging "October Surprise" from the Branchflower report.

Maassen countered that state legislators are inherently partisan and that is no justification for taking away their power to investigate.

State assistant attorney general Jan Hart DeYoung challenged the Legislative Council's authority to launch the investigation and for the Senate Judiciary Committee issue the subpoenas. The full Legislature, which is in recess until January, has never voted to approve the investigation, she said.

"As far as we can discern, the only reason the Judiciary Committee has been inserted into the process is that it is the committee that (French) chairs," Hart DeYoung argued to the judge.

Maassen told the judge that the Legislature has the power to investigate, and has the right to do so through a council or committee.

"We've heard this term rogue investigators and rogue legislators and rogue committees. ... If there were 40 legislators who really agreed this was a rogue process and needed to be brought to a screeching halt, those 40 legislators could convene a special session of the Legislature," he said.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53405.html

cranrab · Oct 3, 2008

QueEx said:
Palin’s investigation of herself uncovered a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten non-firing. Todd Palin (governor’s husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin’s office while she was away.

QE,

i'm all for rooting out political corruption (in this case, alleged abuse of office), but the above sentences smacks of desperation. the blogger did a horrendous job of connecting the dots, and on its face, it looks like childish mud slinging.

"Palin's investigation of herself"

Does a guilty person initiate an investigation knowing the results could be damaging?

"a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten non-firing"

So? even if genuine, "a Palin underling" applying pressure (whatever that is construed to mean) on an UNNAMED trooper is relevant how? without revealing the identity of the trooper, how are we to know that the "pressure" applied was of any consequence or relevance?

"Todd Palin (governor’s husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin’s office while she was away"

and? what was the nature of the conversation "in Palin's office"? ice fishing?

this blogger implies a lot, but substantiates very little.

QueEx · Oct 3, 2008

CR,

If only 10% of people who read would look as deep, scratch beyond the surface, or read as critically as you apparently did the article above, -- we would have a far better informed public/electorate.

I can't say that I drew the same questions from the article as you did but that has a lot to do with us being different individuals with different life experiences. I can say, however, for those that believe in the "Colin" dont-read-that approach, its hard to get to the thought-out questions.

QueEx

P.S.

One question I had after reading that article and several others is this: What is the real role of Todd Palin ??? ALMOST EVERY WHERE I see Sarah, I see Todd. Even after I give him credit for being a stand-by-your-woman husband or a be-there-for-his baby kind of man, I still come away with the sense that there is something, perhaps, a lot, more to Todd's role than many seem to be writing about.

You raised a very good question: "what was the nature of the [Todd Palin] conversation "in Palin's office"? ice fishing?" What came to my mind was, why was Todd Palin at the Governor's office, while Sarah was away ??? Of course, we both would like to know how the author knew the substance of the discussion -- but I haven't seen any denials (a) that Todd was there or (b) that the author had the "discussion" right.

Without question, I get the feeling that Todd is the Shadow Governor and, therefore, I would like to know what Todd Palin thinks and what are Todd Palin's positions on issues because I believe if John McCain should win and something unfortunate happens to him, Todd Palin may be the President-in-Fact, and we don't know Jack, about Todd.

'

QueEx

thoughtone · Oct 6, 2008

source: Yahoo News

GOP lawmakers file appeal to halt Troopergate case

By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 3, 8:29 PM ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Six Alaska lawmakers filed an emergency appeal Friday asking the state's Supreme Court to halt an investigation into abuse of power allegations by Gov. Sarah Palin before the findings are released next week.

The independent investigator conducting the probe plans to turn over his conclusions by next Friday to the body that authorized the it, the Legislative Council. The six Republican lawmakers, none of whom are on the Legislative Council, claim the investigation is being manipulated to damage Palin before Election Day on Nov. 4.

The probe is looking into whether Palin, who is the Republican vice presidential candidate, and others pressured Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire a state trooper who was involved in a contentious divorce from Palin's sister and then fired Monegan when he wouldn't dismiss the trooper. Palin says Monegan was ousted over budget disagreements.

Five Republican lawmakers sued to block the investigation or remove its overseers and were later joined in their lawsuit by a sixth legislator. But the lawsuit was dismissed on Thursday by an Anchorage judge.

Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski said the Legislature has the ability to investigate the circumstances surrounding the firing of a public officer the lawmakers had confirmed.

Plaintiffs' attorney Kelly Shackelford said Friday that Michalski overlooked the legislators' assertion of bias and conflict of interest by the investigation's overseers. He said that alleged bias violates a provision of the state constitution that says legislative and executive investigations cannot infringe on a person's right to "fair and just treatment."

The legislators are asking for an expedited appeal process so that a decision can be made by Thursday's close of business.

Defense attorney Peter Maassen said the Legislature is free to conduct an investigation as it sees fit and the judge's ruling confirmed the separation of power principles. An emergency appeal is unwarranted, he said, because by next Thursday the investigation will have already be completed — all that will remain will be to make its findings public.

"There's been no time in history that a court has suppressed the outcome of a legislative investigation," Maassen said.

Michalski also threw out a lawsuit filed by Palin aides seeking to dismiss subpoenas compelling their testimony in the investigation. The aides had argued that the subpoenas should not have to be honored because they should not have been issued.

It was not clear if those aides would join the appeal. Governor's spokesman Bill McAllister said Attorney General Talis Colberg has not yet spoken with the aides since the ruling was made.

Palin pledged her cooperation with the probe until she became Sen. John McCain's running mate. She has said through her lawyer that she only will cooperate with a separate investigation, one that she calls unbiased but is conducted in secret and can last for years.

Maassen represents Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, the Democratic project manager of the investigation; Sen. Kim Elton, Democratic chairman of the Legislative Council; the investigator, retired prosecutor Steven Branchflower; and the Legislative Council.

French said Sept. 2 that the results of the investigation could constitute an "October surprise" for the McCain campaign. He later apologized for the remark, but Palin's lawyer has said the biased impression it created can't be undone.

thoughtone · Oct 6, 2008

source: Yahoo News

GOP lawmakers file appeal to halt Troopergate case

By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press Writer Fri Oct 3, 8:29 PM ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Six Alaska lawmakers filed an emergency appeal Friday asking the state's Supreme Court to halt an investigation into abuse of power allegations by Gov. Sarah Palin before the findings are released next week.

The independent investigator conducting the probe plans to turn over his conclusions by next Friday to the body that authorized the it, the Legislative Council. The six Republican lawmakers, none of whom are on the Legislative Council, claim the investigation is being manipulated to damage Palin before Election Day on Nov. 4.

The probe is looking into whether Palin, who is the Republican vice presidential candidate, and others pressured Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire a state trooper who was involved in a contentious divorce from Palin's sister and then fired Monegan when he wouldn't dismiss the trooper. Palin says Monegan was ousted over budget disagreements.

Five Republican lawmakers sued to block the investigation or remove its overseers and were later joined in their lawsuit by a sixth legislator. But the lawsuit was dismissed on Thursday by an Anchorage judge.

Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski said the Legislature has the ability to investigate the circumstances surrounding the firing of a public officer the lawmakers had confirmed.

Plaintiffs' attorney Kelly Shackelford said Friday that Michalski overlooked the legislators' assertion of bias and conflict of interest by the investigation's overseers. He said that alleged bias violates a provision of the state constitution that says legislative and executive investigations cannot infringe on a person's right to "fair and just treatment."

The legislators are asking for an expedited appeal process so that a decision can be made by Thursday's close of business.

Defense attorney Peter Maassen said the Legislature is free to conduct an investigation as it sees fit and the judge's ruling confirmed the separation of power principles. An emergency appeal is unwarranted, he said, because by next Thursday the investigation will have already be completed — all that will remain will be to make its findings public.

"There's been no time in history that a court has suppressed the outcome of a legislative investigation," Maassen said.

Michalski also threw out a lawsuit filed by Palin aides seeking to dismiss subpoenas compelling their testimony in the investigation. The aides had argued that the subpoenas should not have to be honored because they should not have been issued.

It was not clear if those aides would join the appeal. Governor's spokesman Bill McAllister said Attorney General Talis Colberg has not yet spoken with the aides since the ruling was made.

Palin pledged her cooperation with the probe until she became Sen. John McCain's running mate. She has said through her lawyer that she only will cooperate with a separate investigation, one that she calls unbiased but is conducted in secret and can last for years.

Maassen represents Senate Judiciary Chairman Hollis French, the Democratic project manager of the investigation; Sen. Kim Elton, Democratic chairman of the Legislative Council; the investigator, retired prosecutor Steven Branchflower; and the Legislative Council.

French said Sept. 2 that the results of the investigation could constitute an "October surprise" for the McCain campaign. He later apologized for the remark, but Palin's lawyer has said the biased impression it created can't be undone.

cranrab · Oct 6, 2008

here's what bothers me about "troopergate": it detracts from critical focus on substantive sarah palin issues like inexperience governing a large population (alaska's TOTAL population is almost 6 times LESS than the CITY of los angeles) and lack of foreign policy.

by pursuing (wasting time?) with a sarah palin investigation into "troopergate", critics are NECESSARILY overlooking substantive problems.

how can i say this?

easy. because proving or disproving "troopergate" doesn't require an investigation of sarah palin; that's a snipe hunt. sarah palin's position is that walt moneghan was fired over budget disagreements. does that claim stick or not? if yes, sorry, game over. if no, then you've got some smoke and can go looking for the fire.

QueEx · Oct 6, 2008

I don't know CR, is it really a distraction as you say? Perhaps. But, recall that the TrooperGate investigation is a bi-partisan creature of the Alaska Legislature that was commenced BEFORE Sarah's known consideration as McCain's running mate.

Note also, that TrooperGate would probably only be a small blip on the political radar, except, however, entered the McCain handlers who made the whole thing look like George Bush and Dick Cheney were running the show.

So, if TrooperGate is a project of the Alaska Legislature, I can't say that anyone is "wasting time". On the other hand, the way McCain's people have ran interference since they got involved it certainly would make one think that where there's smoke, there may be fire.

cranrab · Oct 6, 2008

QueEx said:
iif TrooperGate is a project of the Alaska Legislature, I can't say that anyone is "wasting time".

no problem here.

i mean "waste of time" as in an issue NOT warranting national attention. as you pointed out, let it remain a project of the alaska legislature; that is where it truly belongs. it shouldn't be trotted out as a campaign issue ahead of larger, and IMO more glaring shortcomings.

QueEx said:
the way McCain's people have ran interference since they got involved it certainly would make one think that where there's smoke, there may be fire.

maybe intentionally so, no? certainly if they could deflect attention ONTO "troopergate" when they know the outcome is a wash, they will have NECESSARILY succeeded in obfuscating examinations of sarah palin's actual platform weaknesses.

what i'm trying to suggest is that "troopergate" can be validated by investigating walt moneghan first. if the "budget differences" truly exist, then sarah palin's story/alibi (whether truthful or not) holds up. no amount of stonewalling by sarah palin, her aides, or john mccain can prevent an investigation into walt moneghan.

QueEx · Oct 8, 2008

CR,

On Waste of Time: I would agree with you if it was apparent that the Obama Campaign was putting a lot of time into boosting the investigation but it appears to me, however, that the only interest in TrooperGate is coming from the media and it doesn't appear to be devoting much time to it either. The only real attention that I've noticed has come from the McClatchy, mostly through its affiliate in Anchorage.

On Intentional Deflection: You most certainly could be right. I don't have a feel one way or the other on "why" the interference, but I know it it would have been my advice (had there been nothing there) to open up and let them peer in AND, blast the shit out of em for not quickly admitting the obvious (there is nothing there). I would think that approach sets up the detractors for a quick and hard fall, instead of this cat and mouse shit which implies, you're trying to hide something. But, what the hell; what do I know, ya know. LOL

QueEx

QueEx · Oct 8, 2008

<center>Despite Palin resistance,
'troopergate' report to come Friday</center>

Anchorage Daily News
By Wesley Loy
Wednesday, October 8, 2008

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.

Some of the final witnesses include seven state employees, including the governor's chief of staff, who lost a court fight to kill subpoenas Branchflower obtained through the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee to compel their testimony.

The seven this week are answering a list of questions known as interrogatories. The answers are submitted under oath.

Another key witness, Todd Palin, the governor's husband, also is answering a list of questions in writing, and has a deadline of today to turn them in.

A legislative panel has scheduled a meeting for 9 a.m. Friday to receive Branchflower's report on Monegan's firing and whether Palin or members of her administration abused their powers in pushing for the dismissal of a state trooper involved in a child-custody fight with the governor's sister.

The legislative inquiry into the so-called troopergate affair has gathered huge national interest because of Palin's run for the vice presidency, and because of campaign charges that biased Democrats in the Legislature have manipulated the investigation to damage the McCain-Palin ticket.

When they launched the troopergate probe on July 28, about a month before John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate, legislators designated state Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and Judiciary Committee chairman, as director of the Branchflower investigation.

French said Tuesday that Branchflower, a retired state prosecutor, is working as fast as possible to finish his questioning and draft his report.

Whether in person or in writing, Branchflower has been able to interview nearly all the witnesses he wanted to question regarding whatever they might know about events surrounding Monegan's firing.

The big exception is the governor herself, who had said initially she would cooperate but has since resisted. Legislators decided against hitting the governor with a subpoena, saying they wanted to "de-escalate" tensions between her and the Legislature.

"We tried to schedule a statement from her but it never worked out," French said.

By Friday, Branchflower is expected to have heard from at least 15 witnesses, including Mike Nizich, Palin's chief of staff, and Annette Kreitzer, Palin's commissioner of administration. He's also gathering e-mail and other documents.

French said Branchflower will have to speak for himself as to whether he was able to gather enough witness cooperation and facts to prepare a proper report.

"That's a question that's going to have to get answered Friday," French said. "I've been pretty careful not to peer over his shoulder. He's a very experienced investigator."

Some Republican legislators have criticized French, however, saying he made media remarks that seemed to presage an unfavorable outcome for the governor.

Palin has said she fired Monegan over budget and policy conflicts, not the trooper issue.

At 3 p.m. today, lawyers for six Republican legislators who last week lost a court case seeking to halt the legislative investigation will try to persuade the state Supreme Court to overturn Superior Court Peter Michalski's dismissal of the case.

Meg Stapleton, a local spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, said Todd Palin is answering Branchflower's questions but isn't hopeful of a fair outcome.

"Todd certainly wants to make sure that everyone knows he has nothing to hide," she said. "But Todd and the governor both feel the outcome was predetermined and prejudged back when the governor was named a vice presidential candidate."

Monegan, the man at the center of the Troopergate affair, said he spent nearly a day answering Branchflower's questions in person. He said he also turned over some documents.

"I'm looking forward to whatever Steve finds out," Monegan said. "One, I want the truth to come out. But two, I am sure I'm like the rest of the state in that we'd like to see some conclusion to this thing."

Monegan said he wasn't sure at first, but has come to believe that his failure to heed pressure from Palin, her husband and others to sack state Trooper Mike Wooten is what cost him his job as public safety commissioner.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53632.html

QueEx · Oct 10, 2008

<center>Palins Repeatedly Pressed Case Against Trooper</center>

The New York Times
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: October 9, 2008

ANCHORAGE — The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska’s public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin’s Anchorage office was on the line.

As Mr. Monegan recalls it, the aide said the governor had heard that Trooper Wooten was assigned to work the kickoff to the fair in late August. If so, Mr. Monegan should do something about it, because Ms. Palin was also planning to attend and did not want him nearby.

Somewhat bewildered, Mr. Monegan soon determined that Trooper Wooten had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds — in full costume as “Safety Bear,” the troopers’ child-friendly mascot.

Two years earlier, the trooper and the governor’s sister had been embroiled in a nasty divorce and child-custody battle that had hardened the Palin family against him. To Mr. Monegan and several top aides, the state fair episode was yet another example of a fixation that the governor and her husband, Todd, had with Trooper Wooten and the most granular details of his life.

“I thought to myself, ‘Man, do they have a heavy-duty network and focus on this guy,’ ” Mr. Monegan said. “You’d call that an obsession.”

On July 11, Ms. Palin fired Mr. Monegan, setting off a politically charged scandal that has become vastly more so since Ms. Palin became the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

By now, the outlines of the matter have been widely reported. Mr. Monegan believes he was ousted because he would not bow to pressure to dismiss Trooper Wooten. The Alaska Legislature is investigating the firing and whether the governor abused the powers of her office to pursue a personal vendetta. Its report is due Friday.

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.

To Kim Peterson: “To all of us, it was a campaign to get rid of him as a trooper and, at the very least, to smear the guy and give him a desk job somewhere,” said Kim Peterson, Mr. Monegan’s special assistant, who like several other aides spoke publicly about the matter for the first time.

Ms. Peterson, a 31-year veteran of state government who retired 10 days before Mr. Monegan’s firing, said she received about a dozen calls herself. “It was very clear that someone from the governor’s office wanted him watched,” she said.

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.

Personnel Politics

Immediately after Mr. Monegan’s firing, Ms. Palin said her intent was to change the department’s direction. (She declined to be interviewed for this article.) She has since offered a variety of explanations for his ouster, most recently accusing him of insubordination and opposing her fiscal reforms.

As evidence, she has contended, among other things, that Mr. Monegan arranged two unauthorized lobbying trips to Washington. But according to interviews and records obtained by The New York Times, the governor’s office authorized both trips.

As for Trooper Wooten, Ms. Palin has said she and others were simply lodging legitimate complaints to the appropriate authorities about a trooper with a disciplinary record who was a danger to her family and to the public. In one instance, she said he made a death threat against her father in 2005, an accusation that the trooper has denied.

Ms. Palin initially said she welcomed an investigation into Mr. Monegan’s ouster. But she has since declined to cooperate with the bipartisan inquiry, which Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign says has been “hijacked” by Democratic lawmakers. Ms. Palin has pledged to cooperate with a separate inquiry, by the state’s Personnel Board.

Beyond the potential political consequences, the Legislature’s inquiry, depending on its outcome, could lead lawmakers to censure Ms. Palin or pass legislation making it more difficult for a governor to remove a commissioner, legislative leaders said.

Watching the Trooper Before She Became Governor

The Palin family’s dispute with Trooper Wooten surfaced long before Ms. Palin became governor.

On April 11, 2005, the day Ms. Palin’s sister, Molly McCann, filed for divorce, her father, Chuck Heath, informed the state police that a domestic-violence restraining order had been served on his son-in-law. Mr. Heath later told the state police that, although Trooper Wooten had not physically harmed Ms. McCann, he had intimidated her. Ms. McCann told the authorities that Trooper Wooten said to her that he would shoot Mr. Heath if he hired her a divorce lawyer and would “take down” Ms. Palin if she got involved.

The family also reported that Trooper Wooten, who was assigned to the wildlife investigations unit, shot a cow, or female, moose without a permit, used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson and drank a beer at a friend’s barbecue before taking a second one for the drive home in his patrol car.

In March 2006, after an internal inquiry, Trooper Wooten received a 10-day suspension, which was eventually halved. The suspension letter mentions nothing about threats. At the time, Trooper Wooten and Ms. McCann had been divorced for about two months. But their relationship remained tumultuous, primarily over child custody disputes, said Ms. McCann’s divorce lawyer, Roberta Erwin.

Ms. McCann “wanted to know what relief was available to her” without spending the money to return to court, the lawyer said, adding, “As a close family, the Palins did their best to help her by reaching out further to the trooper hierarchy, with Todd taking the lead.”

On Jan. 4, 2007, a month into the Palin administration and his tenure as public safety commissioner, Mr. Monegan went to the governor’s Anchorage office to talk with Todd Palin, who had requested the meeting. Mr. Palin was seated at a conference table with three stacks of personnel files. That, Mr. Monegan recalled, was the first time he heard the name Mike Wooten.

“He conveyed to me,” Mr. Monegan said, “that he and Sarah did not think the investigation into Wooten had been done well enough and that they were not happy with the punishment. Todd was clearly frustrated.”

Mr. Palin noted Trooper Wooten’s divorce case but dwelt on the moose kill, even showing photographs of the dead animal, Mr. Monegan recalled. The commissioner said he would have his staff evaluate the evidence.

A few days later, Mr. Monegan informed Mr. Palin that the issues raised at the meeting had been addressed in the suspension. The case was closed.

Mr. Palin sounded vexed and said repeatedly Trooper Wooten was getting away with a crime, Mr. Monegan said. “I hung up wondering how long I could keep my job if I tick off my boss’s husband.”

Several evenings later, Mr. Monegan’s cellphone rang. “Walt, it’s Sarah,” the governor said before echoing much of what her husband had said. Trooper Wooten, he recalls being told, was “not the kind of person we should want as a trooper.” He told the governor, too, that there was no new evidence to pursue.

Soon after that, Mr. Palin and several aides began pressing the public safety agency to investigate another matter: whether Trooper Wooten was fraudulently collecting workers’ compensation for a back injury he said he had suffered while helping carry a body bag.

Mr. Palin’s evidence: He told Ms. Peterson, the commissioner’s assistant, that he had seen the trooper riding a snowmobile while on medical leave and that he had photographs to prove it.

When Mr. Palin called back two weeks later, Ms. Peterson said she had met with the trooper but was not authorized to discuss the conversation because it was an official state personnel matter. The issue was eventually resolved in Trooper Wooten’s favor, after his chiropractor sent a letter saying he had approved of the trooper’s riding a snowmobile, as long as he was careful.

Mr. Palin declined to be interviewed. But in a sworn affidavit this week for the legislative investigation, he wrote that he had hundreds of communications about the trooper “with my family, with friends, with colleagues and with just about everyone I could, including government officials.” He added, “In fact, I talked about Wooten so much over the years that my wife told me to stop talking about it with her.”

As for what he had told his wife, Mr. Palin said he often raised his concerns about “the unfairness of his remaining on the state troopers when he was obviously so unfit for the job.”

Of the dozen calls Ms. Peterson received about Trooper Wooten, she said, at least half were from Dianne Kiesel, a deputy director at the Department of Administration. The last discussion with Ms. Kiesel came after Ms. Peterson informed her that the trooper had been cleared to work full time.

“Since there was now no business reason to separate Wooten, she wanted to know what else we could do with him,” Ms. Peterson said, adding, “I could tell she was under pressure to come up with something.”

Ms. Kiesel enumerated various possibilities, like moving him to the cold-case unit or a desk job doing background checks.

Ms. Peterson, who had worked in human resources management for most of her government career, said she pointed out that those options would violate the public safety union’s contract.

At one meeting, Ms. Peterson recalled, the commissioner of administration, Annette Kreitzer, said “to keep an eye on him and that he gets no special privileges.”

In an interview, Ms. Kreitzer said she was simply calling for routine monitoring of an employee who had a disciplinary history or had not been evaluated in a while. Six other administration aides who initiated contacts with public safety officials about Trooper Wooten did not return calls or declined to comment.

As for Trooper Wooten’s planned appearance as Safety Bear, Mr. Monegan said he decided to pull him back.

Unexpected Firing

In July, Ms. Palin’s acting chief of staff called Mr. Monegan to another meeting in that same room in the governor’s Anchorage office. The aide, Michael A. Nizich, said the governor wanted him to head the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, part of the public safety department. Put another way, he was no longer commissioner.

Saying the firing had come “out of the blue,” Mr. Monegan asked how he had upset the governor. Ms. Palin, the aide said, wanted to take the agency in a new direction.

“Was it Wooten?” Mr. Monegan recalled asking.

“A new direction,” was the reply.

The Legislature’s investigation began after a local blogger, who had been a political rival of Ms. Palin, linked Mr. Monegan’s firing to, among other reasons, his refusal to dismiss Trooper Wooten. Initially the governor said through a spokeswoman that the dismissal had nothing to do with a “personality conflict.” Since then, her explanations have evolved, from saying that he was lagging on filling trooper vacancies and tackling alcohol-abuse problems in rural Alaska to showing an “intolerable pattern of insubordination” and a “rogue mentality” by resisting her authority and spending reforms, sometimes publicly.

Mr. Monegan’s successor, Mr. Kopp, said that when the trooper came up in his pre-employment conversations with Palin aides, “it was raised within the context of one of the things that I needed to be aware of, but there was no direction to take any job action.”

During his first week on the job, Mr. Kopp received a call from Mr. Nizich. Trooper Wooten, in uniform, had shown up at the governor’s picnic, which is open to the public. “Is there anything you can do?” Mr. Nizich asked, explaining that the Palins were concerned about his presence.

The trooper was told to leave the area.

About a week later, Mr. Kopp resigned amid scrutiny of a 2005 sexual harassment complaint.

Mr. Wooten, who declined to be interviewed for this article, remains on the force as a patrol trooper.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/10trooper.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

QueEx · Oct 10, 2008

`

Note: The Weekly Standard called the New York Times story A Hit Piece on Sarah Palin.

`

QueEx · Oct 10, 2008

cranrab · Oct 10, 2008

way to stay on top of this, QE.

but i still say boondoggle for now.

so the report concludes palin "abused her power" but also "was within her rights to fire Monegan".

WTF.

if anyone would like to read the actual report, click here: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/C...hflower_report_to_the_legislative_council.pdf

thoughtone · Oct 11, 2008

cranrab said:
way to stay on top of this, QE.

but i still say boondoggle for now.

so the report concludes palin "abused her power" but also "was within her rights to fire Monegan".

WTF.

if anyone would like to read the actual report, click here: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/C...hflower_report_to_the_legislative_council.pdf

Does this cast light on her JUDGMENT, CHARACTER?

cranrab · Oct 11, 2008

thoughtone said:
Does this cast light on her JUDGMENT, CHARACTER?

certainly.

does it refute monegan's allegation that he was fired as a result of not acting upon the palin family wishes?

this reminds me of the situation with the recently convicted NBA official tim donaghy.

the public at large still believes that donaghy was convicted for gambling or fixing, when in fact neither of those were the charges he faced. the conviction served to cement those myths into the public "memory".

with palin and this "troopergate" boondoggle, the public at large is once again running in the wrong direction.

i quote finding #2:

"Governor Palin's firing of Commisioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads"

i quote finding #3:

"Trooper Wooten received all the worker's compensation benefits to which he was entitled."

sarah palin provides plenty ammunition for critics on her own; almost every time she publicly opens her mouth, she inserts her own foot. there isn't enough time to go focusing on snipe hunts.

thoughtone · Oct 12, 2008

cranrab said:
certainly.

Ok then! This is all about Palin. Since she has only been in the national spot light for only about 7 weeks now, we have learn a little more about her.

cranrab · Oct 12, 2008

thoughtone said:
This is all about Palin. Since she has only been in the national spot light for only about 7 weeks now, we have learn a little more about her.

"troopergate" has yielded precious little information about sarah palin. after all, she didn't participate by interview or written statement.

again, if people are genuinely interested in learning about sarah palin, why not listen to her actual comments like these:

QueEx · Oct 12, 2008

CR,

I can appreciate what you're trying to say, but I think you may be misunderstanding TrooperGate.

First, and perhaps foremost, we all need to remember that TrooperGate "Predated" Palin being named as McCain's running mate. It was not the Alaska democrats that started the investigation (though the McCain campaign came in a tried to make it appear so). [1]

Secondly, I think a hellava lot was learned about Sarah Palin -- beyond the charges. We learned that TODD PALIN could be described as the "Shadow Governor" or the "Governor-In-Fact". That alone has signficance, in my opinion, beyond anything else because -- there is the distinct possibility that he is the "Real" political figure and not Sarah -- which means it is he who we may be getting as V.P. or even President if McCain can't continue, if John McCain is elected. I would be digging the shit out of his past right now to see what else is there.

Thirdly, while the Alaskans themselves started TrooperGate, it has been a thorn in the side of John McCain's campaign and is causing concern among republicans.. See, Concern in G.O.P. After Rough Week for McCain, New York Times, October 11, 2008. So, while TrooperGate may have never had the big-play touchdown (knock her ass out) effect; it has, without question, had the 2-3 yards and a cloud of dust effect that has benefitted the Obama campaign. I mean, if you're Obama's campaign, what more could you ask for. And, its been free -- the Obama campaign has not had to spend a dime as its been the media that has put it before the public.

Lastly, forget the counter-spin placed on this by Palin's handlers and the McCain operatives. A lot of people are seeing images of Dick Cheney when they see the propensity of this woman to have ethical lapses and McCain's attempt to cover-up what essentially was, nothing! LOL.

Most people, as usual, got this thing wrong. Most people were thinking criminal charges. But some of us knew differently. Not every act that can be characterized as "abuse of office" is also defined a crime. Example, hiring ones relative in many jurisdictions would be unethical or an abuse of authority, BUT, such "Nepotism" statutes don't always make hiring the relative criminal.

So, the public may have been looking for the big bang, but I would suggest that a little firecracker burst instead that, nevertheless, is troubling to the faithful. Sometimes, rather than throwing the bomb and leaving a lot of time for the other side to recover; its better to donk and dink it out. The 2-3 yards and a cloud of dust (TrooperGate, Gibson interview, Couric interview, Tina Fey impressions, etc.), kind of ball control can have the desired effect. LOL

QueEx

[1] That really made me look harder at John McCain. (1) TrooperGate never really could have been a really serious, earth shaking, matter -- and was almost sure to be nothing more than a lil embarassment; but (2) the McCain people actively tried to hide shit and mislead -- when there was no real need to do so. That told me alot. I thought shorty might have been on the level; a candidate I could have trusted. That shit, however, clearly showed me the S.O.B. was more Bush-like than I had given him credit.

`

cranrab · Oct 12, 2008

QueEx said:
First, and perhaps foremost, we all need to remember that TrooperGate "Predated" Palin being named as McCain's running mate. It was not the Alaska democrats that started the investigation (though the McCain campaign came in a tried to make it appear so). [1]`

no problem whatsover as to when the allegations were made or who does the investigation.

QueEx said:
Secondly, I think a hellava lot was learned about Sarah Palin -- beyond the charges. We learned that TODD PALIN could be described as the "Shadow Governor" or the "Governor-In-Fact". That alone has signficance, in my opinion, beyond anything else because -- there is the distinct possibility that he is the "Real" political figure and not Sarah -- which means it is he who we may be getting as V.P. or even President if McCain can't continue, if John McCain is elected. I would be digging the shit out of his past right now to see what else is there.

reasonable questions, all of which can be investigated w/o "troopergate".

QueEx said:
Thirdly, while the Alaskans themselves started TrooperGate, it has been a thorn in the side of John McCain's campaign and is causing concern among republicans.. See, Concern in G.O.P. After Rough Week for McCain, New York Times, October 11, 2008. So, while TrooperGate may have never had the big-play touchdown (knock her ass out) effect; it has, without question, had the 2-3 yards and a cloud of dust effect that has benefitted the Obama campaign. I mean, if you're Obama's campaign, what more could you ask for. And, its been free -- the Obama campaign has not had to spend a dime as its been the media that has put it before the public.

i'm sure it has a measurable benefit to barack obama's campaign; palin critics are getting good mileage and (possibly) prematurely adding "troopergate" to a long laundry list of palin antics.

it seems as though today's TMZ generation wants to be spoon fed all of their candidate information couched in the shroud of scandal. meanwhile, substantive verified palin history (voting record on the "bridge to nowhere") and bullshit (russian trade missions) gets a casual once-over because it's not sexy enough.

QueEx · Oct 12, 2008

cranrab said:
it seems as though today's TMZ generation wants to be spoon fed all of their candidate information couched in the shroud of scandal. meanwhile, substantive verified palin history (voting record on the "bridge to nowhere") and bullshit (russian trade missions) gets a casual once-over because it's not sexy enough.

Now I'm with you here. Most of the information that allows one to really judge a candidate comes not in the form of the scandal. Unfortunately, it often comes through the boring but solid journalistic pieces (often in print but also in sound but boring pieces from NPR, PBS and others) that the Colinist, the lazy and the illiterate either pass on or are unable to take advantage.

QueEx

thoughtone · Oct 12, 2008

cranrab said:
"troopergate" has yielded precious little information about sarah palin. after all, she didn't participate by interview or written statement.

again, if people are genuinely interested in learning about sarah palin, why not listen to her actual comments like these:

Yes, but the devil is in the details. This as an investigation started before she was chosen for VP by a majority republican panel that had legal authority. Personally I think they chose not to press charges due to the fact that she is involved in a highly charged campaign. Trying to make it less partisan as possible given the circumstances. This can give an idea as to how she arrives at her decisions. I'm just saying this is something we should take in to account to how her thinking works.

T r o o p e r G a t e

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Star

Rising Star

Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Star

Rising Star

Star

Rising Star

Star

Rising Star

Star

Rising Star

Rising Star

Similar threads