Release Of Trooper-Gate Report Hangs On GOP CooperationSo today’s the day for Steve Branchflower to release his report into Trooper-Gate to the Alaska legislative council.
But it’s worth pointing out that, thanks to GOP resistance, Branchflower’s findings may not be made public today.
The legislative council will meet in private at 1pm EST to receive a briefing from Branchflower on his findings. The council will then vote on whether to make the 253-page report public. The legislators, who have already picked up copies of the report, have signed confidentiality agreements promising not to show anyone, including their staff, unless authorized to do so by a vote of the council.
It’s by no means clear which way that vote will go. The council comprises 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats. It had voted unanimously in July to launch the investigation, but since Governor Palin was named as John McCain’s running mate, many Republican members of the legislature have fallen into line behind the McCain camp’s effort to quash the probe. Last month, Rep. John Coghill, a Republican from North Pole who is on the council, charged that the investigation had been inappropriately politicized and called for the removal of Sen. Hollis French, the Anchorage Democrat running the probe. And shortly after, six GOP legislators filed suit to halt the investigation entirely. (The suit was dismissed yesterday by the state Supreme Court.)
The Anchorage Daily News also reports:
Branchflower also produced a separate volume, roughly twice as large as his report, that’s expected to remain confidential because it contains exhibits with personnel information that cannot legally be released, according to legislative council staff.
Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, tried to preemptively discredit the report, telling the ADN that it won’t be comprehensive because Branchflower didn’t interview Palin or her chief of staff, Mike Tibbles.
“They didn’t even try to interview the governor. You want to know why she reassigned Monegan, it would be nice to talk to her. They didn’t even try,” Van Flein said. “It’s a report that’s going to be half-done at best. And anything that’s half-done will likely be half-baked.”
In response, Hollis French told the paper that he wrote a letter to Van Flein last month asking to set up the interview.
In addition, the New York Times has new details on the pressure that was brought by Palin’s office on Walt Monegan in regard to Mike Wooten, the trooper who was embroiled in a bitter family dispute with the Palins.
It reports:
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.
In one of those instances, Monegan received a call from an aide to Palin, who was concerned that Wooten was assigned to work at a state fair the governor planned to attend. Wooten, says the paper, “had indeed volunteered for duty at the fairgrounds — in full costume as “Safety Bear,” the troopers’ child-friendly mascot.”
