An Alaska judge on Thursday refused to block an investigation to determine whether Gov. Sarah Palin improperly fired her public safety commissioner. The judge also rejected a request by the state’s attorney general to toss out subpoenas authorized the by the legislature allowing an independent counsel to obtain testimony from top Palin officials.
Five Republican Alaska lawmakers sued to block the two-month old investigation claiming the probe had been tainted by partisan politics.
Judge Peter Michalski issued his ruling just minutes before Thursday night’s vice presidential debate between Palin and Sen. Joe Biden.
“It is legitimately within the scope of the legislature’s investigatory power to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the termination (of) a public officer the legislature had previously confirmed,” Michalski wrote in his ruling.
The probe centers on whether Palin and several of her senior aides pressured Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire Mike Wooten, a state trooper who was engaged in an ugly divorce and child custody dispute with Gov. Palin’s sister. Palin initially welcomed the investigation, which was approved unanimously in July by the state’s Legislative Council, which has a Republican majority. Former federal prosecutor Steven Branchflower was picked to head the probe under the supervision of Sen. Hollis French, a Democrat who chairs the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee.
However, after McCain picked Palin in late August to be his vice presidential running mate, national and state Republicans began suggesting that the investigation was a partisan witch hunt against Palin.
Attorneys for the lawmakers are considering appealing the decision to the state Supreme Court.
Last week, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg filed a lawsuit asking a judge to invalidate more than a dozen subpoenas seeking testimony from senior Palin aides alleging Alaska’s Senate Judiciary Committee does not have subpoena authority. But Michalski rejected that argument as well Thursday.
Colberg did not state whether he would appeal the decision or advise witnesses in the case who have already been subpoenaed to testify.
The Senate Judiciary Committee authorized thirteen subpoenas Sept. 12 and five were served to officials in the Palin administration. Palin’s husband, Todd, also received a subpoena.
But the witnesses refused to comply with the summonses and did not show up for scheduled depostions. That prompted French to send a letter to Senate President Lyda Green, stating a refusal to respond to the subpoena requires the Alaska Legislature to decide whether to impose fines against or pursue contempt charges.
However, the senate does not convene until January so any action taken would be well after November’s presidential election.
Peter Maassen, the attorney representing Alaska’s Legislative Council, said Michalski’s decision to allow the probe to move forward marked “a great day for the [Alaska] Constitution.”
Maassen said in a court filing last week in response to the lawsuit by the five Republican lawmakers that Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is seeking to derail the inquiry because its findings could “cause serious damage to the Republican ticket.”
The “McCain campaign and its supporters, having apparently convinced themselves that the facts would cause serious damage to the Republican ticket if publicly known before the national election, are now moving on many fronts-including this one-to slow and stop Mr. Branchflower’s fact-finding inquiry and to prevent his issuance of the report authorized by the Legislative Council.”
In their complaint, GOP Reps. Wes Keller, Mike Kelly, and Bob Lynn, and Senators Fred Dyson and Tom Wagoner, accused Branchflower, French and the Legislative Council’s Democratic Chair Kim Elton, of “conducting a McCarthyistic investigation in an unlawful, biased, partial, and partisan political manner in order to impact the upcoming Alaska general and national presidential elections, and they are conducting investigations into matters that the Alaska Constitution entrusts exclusively to the Executive Branch, over which the Legislature has no power to act.”
“[We] bring this action in order to put a stop to Defendants’ abuse of legislative power, abuse of legislative office, and misuse and misappropriation of legislative funds, facilities, equipment and services for partisan political purposes under the ruse of a so-called independent investigation,” the GOP lawmakers’ lawsuit says.
Kevin Clarkson, an attorney representing the Republican lawmakers, had said the investigation is an attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election Nov. 4.
In a statement Thursday, Clarkson said Michalski’s decision “is dangerous because it robs every Alaskan of the protection specifically provided by the Alaska Constitution.”
French said Branchflower is expected to finish his report on the controversy by Oct. 10.
