It didn't take long. We've already brought you news of the official investigation into Gov. Palin's firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Steve Branchflower, the lead investigator, began trying to arrange a deposition of the governor days before her veep selection. And despite claiming executive privilege to shield requested emails, up until that point Palin had promised full cooperation with the probe.
Now, however, she is refusing to submit to questioning by Branchflower unless he and the legislative committee that appointed him agree to relinquish control of the investigation and turn it over to a state review board made up of three Palin appointees.
Yesterday, Palin took the unusual step of having her lawyer, Thomas van Flein, file an ethics complaint against her with the state's Attorney General. This, she hopes, will lead the AG to give the investigation to the aforementioned state personnel board. Unless that happens, and Branchflower agrees to close down his investigation, she will refuse to testify.
3 September 2008
Addition: We now have word that Palin's aide, Frank Bailey, who had previously agreed to testify in the Trooper-Gate scandal, has now refused to do so. As Zachary Roth of TPM notes:
.Bailey is central to the case. In phone recordings released last month as part of a parallel probe by the state Attorney General, Bailey suggested that Palin and her husband wanted trooper Mike Wooten -- who has been embroiled in a messy family dispute with the Palins -- removed from his job.
"The Palins can't figure out why nothing's going on," Bailey told a trooper official. "I mean he's declared bankruptcy, his finances are a complete disaster, he's bought a new truck. All kinds of crazy stuff. He doesn't represent the department well. The community knows it, but no action is being taken."
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