Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin portrays herself as a traditional wife and mother, in addition to a rising star in Alaska politics, who has successfully balanced her myriad responsibilities.
But tension between her familial and gubernatorial roles is at the heart of one of the more contentious questions dogging the GOP vice-presidential candidate back home: Did she try to use her power as governor to settle a family score by pressuring a top state official to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper then involved in a bitter custody fight with her sister?
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A bipartisan panel of the state legislature is investigating that question, and also, whether Palin subsequently fired former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan when he refused to comply with her request to get rid of her ex-brother-in-law Mike Wooten.
The panel was slated to release its findings about what the Alaska media have been calling “Troopergate” at the end of October, only days before Election Day.
Now, in what appears to be a bid to slow down the probe, if not derail it, a private lawyer hired to represent Palin has challenged the authority of state lawmakers to look into ethics questions. Instead, the lawyer, Thomas V. Van Flein, contends the probe should be handled by the state Personnel Board, which he says is “statutorily mandated” to handle ethics cases. The three-member Personnel Board is appointed by the governor.
Van Flein is also making it difficult for the retired state prosecutor charged with conducting the probe to interview Palin. Van Flein said the investigation is “bad timing” in the middle of a presidential campaign.
Palin had initially denied that she had pressured Monegan to fire Wooten. She said she had simply raised questions about Wooten, relaying the allegation that he made a death threat against her father.
But later this summer, she acknowledged becoming aware that her husband, Todd Palin, and several members of her administration had made calls about Wooten to various state officials. In a TV interview in July, Todd Palin confirmed he had talked with Monegan, but said he was just “informing” him about Wooten, not pressuring him.
A four-page backgrounder put out Monday by the McCain/Palin campaign says that Todd Palin, and members of Palin’s staff had made inquiries “about the appropriate Department of Public Safety procedures for dealing with someone they considered a dangerous person and rogue trooper.”
Monegan, however, believes that his firing in July was related to his refusal to remove Wooten. He also turned over several emails that he said he received from Palin about Wooten.
The hiring of Van Flein, an attorney with the Anchorage law firm of Clapp, Peterson, Van Flein, Tiemessen & Thorsness, apparently occurred two weeks ago, but was disclosed Friday by the Legislature’s investigating committee.
His work started Aug. 21, and he is being paid $185 an hour, lower than his usual rate, to represent Palin and others in the governor’s office, according to the Anchorage Daily News. He is authorized to spend up to $95,000.
Van Flein has represented the Palin family in the past as a private attorney, according to a McCain aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
But the lawyer himself declined to verify that citing attorney-client privilege. “Did I know the Palins before the state hired me? Yes,” he told The Associated Press.
“The governor of every state gets legal counsel, and this attorney is part of a weeks-old effort to provide this governor defense in a series of outlandish, politically motivated charges,” said senior McCain adviser Tucker Eskew. “It is a matter of her job and is not recent, and it is not related to her selection on the McCain-Palin ticket.”
Here is the affadavit filed by Van Flein requesting the inquiry be handled by the state Personnel Board. Here is his press release about it.