Palin’s Yup’ik Eskimo husband entrenched in ethics probe

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An Alaska Legislature investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin’s controversial dismissal of an Alaska Native state official has resulted in her husband, Todd Palin, testifying that no wrongdoing occurred in the situation.

Some state politicos have long said that Todd Palin, who is of Yup’ik Eskimo descent, has held unprecedented power over his wife’s decision-making process during her two years in the state’s highest office. Public information records garnered from at least three requests indicate that the first spouse exchanged dozens of e-mails with members of the governor’s staff during his wife’s short time in office.

But Todd Palin said in a sworn affidavit released Oct. 8 that his involvement never included pressuring the state’s first Alaska Native public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten.

Wooten, a state trooper who had divorced the governor’s sister, was ultimately terminated from his position. There has been a cloud of controversy from state policymakers as to whether undue influence from the Palin family resulted in his firing.

Questions about the ethics of the situation spread to the national level once Sen. John McCain chose Sarah Palin to become his vice presidential running mate in August.

“My concerns … were not why Monegan was reassigned,” Todd Palin said in the 52-page affidavit. Rather, he said his wife was unhappy with Monegan because of “budget issues and failure to fill trooper vacancies.”

Todd Palin said that he never told Monegan to fire Wooten. Rather, he said his complaints centered more on his wife’s inability to sometimes use the Department of Public Safety’s Beechcraft King Air turboprop plane to reach outlying constituents in the large state: “It seemed like whenever Sarah needed this plane, it was unavailable.”

He added in his statement that he and his wife thought Monegan’s department “was retaliating against Sarah” because she had sold a jet that “Department of Safety officials enjoyed using.”

“My understanding was that [Monegan] was in charge of receiving any kind of complaint about a trooper,” Palin said. “That was his job. At no time did Monegan tell me he felt ‘pressure’ to do anything he did not think was right.”

After Monegan was dismissed, he was offered a position as executive director of the Alcohol Beverage Control Board. He turned down the job.

He has said in several news reports that he believes he was fired because he defied pressure to terminate the governor’s ex-brother-in-law.

“Walt Monegan was, to the best of my knowledge, not terminated,” Todd Palin said in the affidavit. “He was offered a reassignment, and he resigned rather than accept the reassignment.”

Beginning in mid-September, when the spotlight began shining brightly on Todd Palin’s role in the case, he had been resisting a subpoena by lawmakers looking into Monegan’s firing. But with a report from an Anchorage prosecutor hired to conduct an inquiry expected to be released Oct. 10, he agreed to answer written questions submitted through his lawyer.

Meanwhile, Alaska’s Supreme Court heard arguments Oct. 8 involving an appeal by Gov. Palin’s allies to block a probe by the state Legislature into the incident.

Sarah Palin has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the Wooten case, and has called him a “rogue trooper” who threatened her family during his divorce from her sister.

Her Republican allies have been seeking an end to the Legislature’s investigation. Several GOP lawmakers sued to block the investigation in August, after she was selected as the first female Republican vice presidential candidate.

Her allies have largely argued that the investigation is a Democratic-led witch hunt.

“We are not taking the position that this court should rule that the Legislature cannot, under any circumstances, conduct this investigation,” Kevin Clarkson, a lawyer for the GOP lawmakers who filed suit, told the court Oct. 8.

“Our point is that this investigation, as it has been conducted to date, has been conducted unconstitutionally and that there is no harm that will tip the scale in their direction if this investigation that is unconstitutional is stopped so that it can be done in a constitutionally compliant manner.”

Aides to Sarah Palin have said the governor will fully cooperate with a separate investigation by the state Personnel Board. Her advisers have long argued that that agency is the more appropriate venue for the inquiry.