Sarah Palin Denies ‘Inaccurate’ Ethics Accusations
PoliticsDaily
To be clear, no new ethics charges have been filed against Palin, who steps down as governor on Sunday. Her attorneys are working with an investigator, no courts are involved and the Alaska Personnel Board will not likely hold a hearing on the matter.
To me, the fuss seems like a politically motivated attack on the governor in her last week in office, intended to further sully her name. As her personal attorney, Thomas Van Flein, wrote in a statement Tuesday: “The apparent primary goal of this complaint has been achieved, namely, an effort to keep the complainant’s name in the paper. . . . This is the fourth ethics complaint filed against the Governor since the announcement of her resignation on July 3.”
At issue is whether Palin is allowed to have an official trust fund pay for her legal defense in matters of state business. The legal defense fund in question, the Alaska Fund Trust, was set up by Palin supporters to “defend the integrity of the Alaska Governor’s Office from an onslaught of political attacks launched against current Governor Sarah Palin, the First Family, and state-employed colleagues.”
According to the fund’s website, “the baseless accusations have cost Alaska more than $1 million in public monies to defend, and Governor Palin has incurred more than half a million dollars in personal debt defending her official actions as governor.”
“I find the notion that I have taken any action pertaining to the legal defense trust fund misguided and factually in error,” Palin asserted in a statement Tuesday. “I am informed that this fund was created by experienced attorneys in D.C. and was modeled after other similar funds established for senators and others. The fund itself was not created by me nor is it controlled by me.”
Palin also stated: “Neither I nor my lawyer has received a penny from this fund, and I am informed the Trustee was withholding any action or payment pending final resolution with the Personnel Board. This is the hallmark of legal compliance and prudent conduct.”
Only in the absurd world of politics do we have ethics investigations of funds used to defend against other ethics investigations. However the allegations against her are resolved, though, the worst that could happen would be a financial penalty in which Palin would have to pay for her legal defense from another fund or personal money.
My point is that this is not Watergate. But you wouldn’t know that from the media headlines which appeared after someone leaked the report to the Associated Press.
CBS News: Investigator: Palin Broke Ethics Rules
Washington Post: Report: Palin Misused Legal Defense Fund
Time: Palin May Have Violated Ethics Rules
Those stories stemmed from someone leaking a confidential report by independent investigator Thomas Daniel to the AP. In the preliminary report to the Alaska Personnel Board, Daniel said, “I can recommend that corrective action be taken to resolve this complaint without a formal hearing on the matter.”
In a statement, Palin pushed back at the latest media stories: “I have not ‘acted’ relative to the defense fund and it is misleading to say I have. I have no doubt that the Trust will welcome guidance by the Board.”
Leaking a pending investigative report to the press is against state law, and Palin’s attorneys plan to file a grievance. “All options are open in terms of legal remedies,” Van Flein wrote in another statement Tuesday. “The resolution of the Trust Fund is not final. I have been working with the investigator regarding supplemental information. The matter is still pending. Whatever you have seen was released in violation of law.”
Palin spokesperson Meghan Stapleton reiterated that “there is no final report. The investigator is still confidentially reviewing this matter. It appears suspect that in the final days of the governor’s term, someone would again violate the law and announce a supposed conclusion before it is reached.”
Now that “someone” may have to have his or her own legal defense fund. And so it goes, around and around, politics as usual.
