Former Alaska public safety commissioner Walt Monegan, the man vice presidential nominee Sara Palin fired in what has become the "troopergate" scandal, says that the statement on the matter made by Governor Palin's husband, Todd Palin, supports what Monegan has been saying all along: that Todd Palin was obsessed with seeing state trooper Mike Wooten, Palin's ex-brother-in-law, dismissed.
The release of Todd Palin's statement comes one day before an Alaska legislative report is to be released on whether Governor Palin abused her power by firing Monegan. Hours ago, the Alaska Supreme Court rejected a bid by Republican lawyers to block the investigation. The "troopergate" report is scheduled to be delivered to the Alaska Legislative Council at 9 a.m. Friday.
In a phone interview today, Monegan underlined his view that Todd Palin was one of the people applying pressure to fire Trooper Wooten.
Todd admits "he's been campaigning [to fire Wooten] for years... I think he had a kind of obsession with it."
In a 25-page statement turned over Wednesday to an investigator hired by state lawmakers, Todd Palin said, "I had hundreds of conversations and communications about Trooper Wooten over the last several years with my family, with friends, with colleagues, and with just about everyone I could, including government officials."
Todd Palin admits that after his wife took office in late 2006, he began telling Monegan and other state officials he thought Wooten was dangerous and unfit to serve. He says, however, that he never pressured Monegan to fire the trooper. Sarah Palin has said she never pressured Monegan to fire Wooten and that she dismissed him over budgetary disagreements.
Monegan says he and others in the Public Safety Department had numerous conversations with the Palins and the governor's aides about Wooten. But he says Wooten had been disciplined for misconduct reported by the Palin family before Sarah Palin was elected governor and so Monegan believed the matter had been resolved.
For Monegan, the question still is who was behind the continuing effort to have Wooten fired?
"When I was contacted by the attorney general, or by Annette Kreitzer, or Mike Tibbles, who was the instigator of that?" Monegan wonders. "Somebody actually had to set that up. Who leaned on them to make them call me? Was it Sarah? Was it staff? Was it Todd?"
Read the rest of Tony Hopfinger's post at AlaskaDispatch where it appeared originally.