The Alaska Senate on Friday found Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin’s husband and nine state employees, including some of her top aides, in contempt for ignoring subpoenas to testify in the Legislature’s Troopergate investigation.
The Senate said it would seek no punishment for the witnesses’ failure to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee last fall in an investigation into the governor’s firing of her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan.
“During the Monegan investigation, we were reminded that the legislative branch’s power of subpoena is an important one, and must be respected by the executive branch,” Senator Hollis French said. “With this resolution, the Senate is making it clear that we are a coequal branch of state government.”
The witnesses later provided sworn written statements after a lawsuit filed on behalf of seven of the state employees by state Attorney General Talis Colberg was dismissed in Superior Court. The case was appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The investigation was looking into whether Palin, assisted by aides and her husband, Todd, pressured Monegan to fire a state trooper — the former husband of Palin’s sister — and then fired Monegan when he refused. Palin said Monegan was ousted over budget disagreements.
Attorney Thomas Van Flein, who represented Todd Palin, said there was no contempt because his client initially provided the proper objection to the subpoena and later complied with a written statement.
Van Flein said the Senate should have allowed witnesses an opportunity to state their case before issuing the resolution.
“They didn’t allow any opportunity to present actual evidence and facts. It appears to be pure political grandstanding,” he said.
Colberg was not immediately available for comment on Friday. Palin’s spokesman Bill McAllister said the governor had no comment.
French said the witnesses’ decision to eventually provide written statements led to the Senate’s decision not to impose any penalties.
State statute provides for fines and a maximum of six months in jail for contempt of legislative subpoenas.
French said the resolution was meant to strike a balance and, in so doing, represented the Senate at its best. The lone dissenter in the 16-1 vote, Anchorage Republican Con Bunde, disagreed.
“We rehash an old issue and then decide to do nothing about it. I hope that’s not our best,” Bunde said.
Democrats and Republicans each have 10 seats in the state Senate, but it is led by a bipartisan coalition that includes all the Democrats and six of the Republicans.
Palin initially said she would cooperate fully in the legislative investigation but that changed after the matter became politically charged when she was named Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain’s running mate.
Two separate investigations looked into the matter of Monegan’s firing.
The legislative special counsel, Stephen Branchflower, found that Palin had abused her office but the firing was legal since Monegan was an at-will employee.
A subsequent investigation by the Alaska State Personnel Board found there was no probable cause to believe Palin or any other state official violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act.
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
EYEING A SOLUTION: In unusually critical remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said he was ‘destroying Russia by not making a deal’ US President Donald Trump on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. Trump’s warning in a social media post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
RSS