AK Lawmakers Fire Back on GOP Bid To Shut Down Trooper-Gate Probe

The Alaska lawmakers overseeing the Sarah Palin Trooper-Gate investigation have hit back at the GOP-led effort to shut down the probe.

Last week, Republican legislators filed suit to halt the investigation, arguing that it had been inappropriately politicized by Democratic senators Hollis French and Kim Elton. This afternoon, Peter Maassen, an attorney representing French and Elton, as well as independent investigator Steven Branchflower, announced in a press release that he will be asking a judge to throw out that lawsuit.

The press release points out that the investigation was launched in July after a 12-0 bipartisan vote of the legislative council. And it asserts that the original GOP complaints “suggest that Alaska legislators with open political views should be prohibited from participating in any legislative function that might — might — reflect badly on Governor Palin.”

The release refers to “powerful and increasingly heavy-handed national interests” as being opposed to the investigation’s continuance.

And in a bid to fight back against Republican efforts to remove French from his position overseeing the probe, the release adds: “The legislature is allowed to decide for itself what it will investigate, who it will employ as investigator, and which of its members will oversee the investigation.”

Maassen is with the Anchorage-based firm Ingaldson, Maassen & Fitzgerald.

It appears all but certain that the investigaiton will go forward, and that Branchflower will release a report on or aorund October 11th, as scheduled. However, it’s unclear how comprehensive the report will be, thanks to efforts by the McCain-Palin campaign to ensure that Branchflower won’t be hearing directly from several key witnesses, including Sarah and Todd Palin.