RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Sarah Palin for VP

Stalling tactics alleged in ‘Troopergate’ probe

Democrat says balky witnesses may delay Palin investigation past election

Rick Wilking / Reuters file

updated 8:05 p.m. ET Sept. 18, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A key Alaska lawmaker said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses were stalling an abuse-of-power-investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, delays that could last beyond Election Day.
Alaska legislators were scheduled to meet Friday to review the investigation after the state attorney general declared that Palin and her staff would reject subpoenas seeking their testimony.
Todd Palin, husband of the Alaska governor, on Thursday announced he would refuse to testify. Palin had been subpoenaed to appear Friday in the probe. McCain-Palin spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said Todd Palin no longer believes the Legislature's investigation is legitimate.

Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski of East Anchorage said court action to force the witnesses to appear was unlikely, meaning the witnesses could hold out for months without penalty.
The investigation, which has come to be known as “Troopergate,” is looking into allegations that Palin dismissed the state public safety commissioner because he resisted pressure to fire her former brother-in-law from the Division of Alaska State Troopers.
Before she was chosen to run on the Republican presidential ticket, Palin agreed that she and members of her staff would be be interviewed by Stephen Branchflower, appointed by the Legislature to lead the investigation.
But the Department of Law later declared that the Legislature had no authority to investigate and said it would not allow Palin and her staff to be interviewed. On Tuesday, Attorney General Talis Colberg, a Palin appointee, announced that state workers would not comply with any subpoenas. Colberg then left the state on vacation.
Wielechowski, a member of the Judiciary Committee that subpoenaed Palin’s husband and 12 members of her gubernatorial staff, accused Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign of interfering in the investigation.
“It appears that the McCain campaign is co-opting our Department of Law and basically calling the shots, and I think that’s pretty clear from some of the actions we’ve seen over the past couple of days,” Wielechowski said in an interview with NBC affiliate KTUU of Anchorage.
Palin's office said in a statement that the Department of Law, which represents the governor, “remains separate and will continue to remain separate from the presidential/vice presidential campaign.”
But Newsweek magazine reported this week that the McCain campaign had dispatched Edward O’Callaghan, a former federal prosecutor, to coordinate Palin’s legal strategy in the investigation. And Palin’s public comments on the probe have come not from her or her gubernatorial staff, but from O’Callaghan and Meghan Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign.
....