Feds to Alaska: Back Off of Corruption Investigation, You Will Mess Up OursNow that two Veco executives have pleaded guilty to buying politicians, two former legislators have been convicted on bribery charges, two more lawmakers are awaiting trial and two thirds of the federal delegation is under FBI investigation, Alaska has decided maybe it should start looking into some of this corruption stuff.
But, too late.
Gov. Sarah Palin released a letter today from the Justice Department telling the state to drop its investigation into whether Veco paid for political polling, fearing the inquiry may interfere with the wide-ranging and ongoing federal probe. The letter is available here.
In her letter, Brenda Morris, deputy principal of the Public Integrity Section at the Justice Department, tried to let down Alaska’s Attorney General Talis Colber easy:
We understand and appreciate that all levels of law enforcement – local, state and federal – have an interest in ensuring that government and its officials operate free of illegal influences. However, because of the long-standing federal investigation into these matters, we believe that concurrent state investigative activity will have the effect of compromising certain aspects of the ongoing federal public corruption investigation.
There’s always next time, Alaska.
