Palin’s Legal Defense Fund Shell Game **UPDATED**
Yesterday, I was alerted to an entry by Sarah Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, on the Palin Mansour Facebook Page (I bolded the information required to make a few salient points):
Yesterday we learned that another “ethics” complaint that was filed against Governor Palin was dismissed as baseless. (If you are counting, the Governor is 26-0-1 regarding such complaints or suits, with one still pending). Only this complaint was actually filed after she left office, and alleged that the mere existence of the Alaska Fund Trust (the legal defense fund set up for her to help defray the costs incurred during the Troopergate fiasco and related machinations that followed in its wake) was violative of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act as well as its solicitation or receipt of contributions.
…In a detailed opinion, the complaint was dismissed as lacking a factual or legal basis….
1) The referrals to the complaint were uncharacteristically vague: Previously, it seemed that Van Flein/Palin couldn’t wait to tie a complaint to the individual who filed it nor could they wait to give the details of dates they were filed and dates they were dismissed. Even folks who had not made their own filing public were “outed” after the fact. Not this time–they did not mention who nor did they specifically mention when this complaint was filed.
2) They did mention that it was “actually filed after she left office.”
3) “…the complaint was dismissed as lacking a factual or legal basis….”: Van Flein claims this is the reason given that it was dismissed. However, he provides no report from the Personnel Board of the dismissal where we can actually read that. This is a deviation from the vast majority of the other reported dismissals…when Palin waves her rights to confidentiality, all documents are public and not only do they provide them, they flaunt them even brag about them.
However, this time NO documents have been provided, nor has a complaint-filer’s name been provided.
Interestingly, there is a complaint that fits this criteria…filed by Andree McLeod back on December 9, 2oo9.
So, it is possible but rather unlikely that another complaint was filed since they obviously waived confidentiality yet are providing no information. Why would they prop up this dismissal as “breaking news?”
I called Van Flein’s office with a simple question: “Was the dismissed ethics complaint you announced on Facebook the one filed by Andree McLeod?” I also asked about the status of the Kim Chatman complaint. I did not get a reply, but luckily Sean Cockerham of the ADN did:
I just heard back from Palin’s lawyer, Tom Van Flein, who says Palin’s legal defense fund remains frozen until the personnel board rules on the Kim Chatman complaint that led to an investigator’s finding of “probable cause” the fund broke the law.
Van Flein told me the other complaint, which the personnel board dismissed this week, alleged Palin couldn’t even solicit contributions for the legal defense fund as a private citizen after she left office last July. The issue that remains is whether Palin was allowed to solicit contributions while governor.
“That fund was in fact voluntarily frozen by the trustee on or about April 27 and remains so to this day pending a resolution of the matter. No money has been distributed on behalf of Sarah Palin from that trust fund,” Van Flein wrote.
(P.S. I like the “voluntarily frozen” claim. Per Investigator Daniel’s ”Recommendation of Corrective Action” from his report on the Kim Chatman complaint:
My recommendation is that the Governor should refuse to accept payment of her legal fees and costs from The Alaska Fund Trust and withdraw her authorization for the trust to be recognized as her “official” legal defense fund.
So…Investigator Daniel actually ”suggested” that it would be a really good idea that Palin “voluntarily” not spend any of her fund trust. But I digress…)
What is the motivation that would cause Palin’s crew to be vague about this ethics complaint dismissal? The reality, out of Van Flein’s own mouth, is that absolutely nothing has changed regarding Palin’s Alaska Fund Trust. It is still frozen, the Personnel Board is still sitting on the findings and refusing to follow the Executive Branch Ethics Act to it’s next logical step–initiating formal proceedings, since it is obvious that Sarah Palin refuses to participate in a settlement. Per the Executive Branch Ethic’s Act:
…the attorney general shall initiate formal proceedings by serving a copy of an accusation upon the subject of the accusation. The accusation shall specifically set out the alleged violation. After service, the accusation is a public document open to inspection. Except as provided in AS 39.52.370(c), all subsequent proceedings are open to the public.
The Alaska Fund Trust issue has been discussed and analyzed frequently on Mudflats and Blue Oasis. (A New York lawyer even did an exhaustive analysis of the ethics violations.) Right now, this case is just as paralyzed as it has been since last June. As discussed before, we know this because (as stated above) if formal proceedings had been initiated, it would no longer be ”confidential.” If Palin were to settle, there would be a document stating such and it would be also be public information. Palin’s Personnel Board is trapped…she’ll never settle and putting her before a formal hearing would infuriate the former half-Gov. So again…why be vague about this dismissed complaint?
It’s been mentioned in many articles, reflected in a number of polls and seen in the comments of many online posts that Palin is losing her luster to many of her fans. Her constant money-grubbing, to the point of throwing aside beliefs that she espoused just the week (or even the day) before is finally opening people’s eyes. Recent revelations that Palin has done very little with her SarahPAC other than enrich her own life and the lives of those who work for her, donating mere pittances to the candidates she held up as the reason she needed those donations, may have discouraged people from donating more.
I can only imagine they are afraid that this will hit her very hard in the pocketbook for the next reporting period.
As has been mentioned repeatedly, Palin has left her Alaska Fund Trust site up and has been collecting money through this entire ethics issue and “voluntary” account freeze. The story of the remaining ethics problems surrounding the Alaska Fund Trust has become more known over time, which may add to people’s unease. Most importantly to Palin, it also might make them hesitate to contribute. With the hacking case as a perfect opportunity to roll out the tired “Sarah Palin: victim” meme as well as using it to make more stuff up about the Alaska Bloggers, she can’t abide anyone hesitating to donate to ANYTHING Sarah Palin.
Thus…the Shell Game! A very official-sounding Thomas Van Flein puts out a piece on Palin’s Mansour’s Facebook talking in vague terms about an ethics complaint regarding her “Legal Defense Fund” being dismissed. The Palinista blogs astroturf the story while they hope that the mainstream media reports it without the rest of the facts.
That wouldn’t actually work, would it?
Well, would it?
Luckily for Alaska, it hasn’t worked with Sean Cockerham and the Anchorage Daily News…or their parent organization, McClatchy:
RULING: Investigation found former governor used position for gain.
The state ethics board still hasn’t taken action on its investigator’s finding nine months ago that Sarah Palin’s legal defense fund likely violated the law.
Even the ADN seems to think that, this time, Palin’s “Shell Game” has gone too far.
Read previous stories:
The Alaska Fund Bust – Palin’s (Il)legal Defense Fund (The Huffington Post, July 21, 2009)
Alaska Fund Trust – Who Knew? (The Mudflats, July 22, 2009)
Shoveling Through Kristan Cole’s Press Release - (The Mudflats, July 23, 2009)
Palin Says Give, Give, Give til it Hurts! – (The Mudflats, October 15, 2009)
Ethics Complaint Filed – Palin Still Begging Money from the Public (The Mudflats, December 8, 2009)
September Meetings Will Decide Palin’s Legal Fate (Blue Oasis, August 31, 2009)
Undisclosed–Pt. 1 Alaska Fund Trust (Blue Oasis, October 28, 2009)
The Alaska Fund Trust–An Analysis by an East Coast Lawyer (Blue Oasis, July 24, 2009)
About time, ADN. Bravo, AKM.
Take down this lying fraud, $P.
Bravo Linda. (oops!)
great post as ever – one thing: it’s waives, not waves.
,” there is a complaint that fits this criteria…filed by Andree McLeod back on December 9, 2oo9. However, there is a little problem…Van Flein claims that they only learned of the dismissal on Monday. This complaint has been dismissed since July 24, 2009″:
Are there two complaints at issue? How can a complaint be dismissed — e.g. July 24, 2009 — before it is filed — e.g. Dec. 9, 2009? I am confused.
Fixed now…
WWJD? Lie, lie, lie. Cheat. Do anything you can for money. More money! Cry. Scream. Claim victim! Spew hate, hate and more hate. Cry some more. Hate some more. Then lie some more. And wink.
She must think the J stands for Judas.
“Game” is right, AKM. She’s been gaming all along. Deception is key to her success.
Excellent post Linda! I was confused as to which complaint van Flea was referring to in that FB post. Now it makes a lot more sense.
I’m confused…it was filed December 9, 2009 and dismissed July 24, 2009? It was dismissed over 4 months prior to being filed? Did I miss something?
NMJ. I think Linda means that he was talking about another complaint that had already been dismissed. He just wanted to make people think it was the more recent one filed by Andree.
Ok, I went back and reread the post as there was obviously a problem with a date somewhere and I also missed the beginning of the SM Show. Have I got this right – it is Kim Chapman’s complaint that is still outstanding and Andree’s complaint in fact has been dismissed? When it comes to the terminology involved in these trust funds and PACs, I tend to get a little lost.
I also went back to reread JHop’s analysis of the trust fund. It was amazingly good. Even I could understand it. I actually met JHop at the NYC Mudstock and she was lovely!
Linda, I think this is an outstanding post…….I hope it is picked up by the MSM. Ring Keith and Rachel!!!
Fixed it
You are basing a lot of your reasoning on an opinion by one investigator that was illegally released, probably by Chatman herself.
And, yes, Elizabeth, many of the complaints that were tossed had more than one charge. All of them dropped.
Well, there was the matter of Palin reimbursing the state for Piper flying in the State King-Air to Cordova in a seat that would have been empty, anyway. You’ll note that Saint Tony Knowles did the very same thing and never paid a dime. Google his quotes and you’ll find that Knowles said he never charged the state for his kids to fly on COMMERCIAL aircraft; he conveniently forgot to mention how many times his kids flew on the state’s plane. He also skipped over flying his wife to Japan, Puerto Rico and Europe.
One other point: You seem mystified as to what charge was dismissed since you were not aware of it….that’s the way the process is supposed to work. These charges are, BY LAW, supposed to be kept confidential until they are heard.
–The “opinion from one investigator” is how the Executive Branch Ethics Act works. I’m guessing that “opinion” didn’t bother you when it swung your way. Plus, Daniel completely ignored the actual legal document upon which the fund was established (which, according to another lawyer, revealed a myriad more violations) and based his opinion on the website propaganda alone.
–Tony Knowles family may have flown on King Air for normal reasons–to occasionally go to their home in Southcentral. Strangely enough, he actually LIVED in Juneau in the Governor’s Mansion when he was SUPPOSED TO and didn’t pay himself per diem to live in his own home. And flying spouses wasn’t the issue…it was the kids. Knowles stated he could count on one hand the number of times his kids ever flew anywhere. Plus, a policy was never questioned until Murkowski, the governor after him, because Murky seemed to be abusing the priviledge. Interestingly, rumor has it that Sarah Palin may have been behind some of that “questioning” at that time.
–Re: confidentiality–the Personnel Board is NOT following the Executive Branch Ethics Act or there would have been a public settlement/public hearing months so the public is correct to be suspicious of the continued confidentiality. The only way for that to occur is to be sitting on the case.
Van Flea must do something to earn his retainer, even if it’s spin and smooze and evade the truth by claiming a “new” dismissal that’s almost a year old.
“No money has been distributed on behalf of Sarah Palin from that trust fund”.
Is Palin even paying Van Flea? One can imagine her shrugging off his bills until the Trust money is liberated: “you’ll get paid when I get paid”.
Isn’t SarahPAC paying Van Flein? He’s listed on their financial report? And yet… didn’t I just read somewhere he’d signed his name as ‘Sarah Palin’s personal attorney” ?
So if hes her ‘personal’ atty, why is he also being paid by yhe PAC?
Questions questions – rofl – these ppl are making me crazy
(Hi Linda!)
Weird how Van Flein is paid to write something that only confuses the issue. Oh that’s right, most of Sarah’s facebook fans don’t care to know the whole story.
suckers.
And they can’t even follow when she actually changes the story! They are so blinded. Dolts, all.
Oh, and “Hi!” SJP! *waving frantically*
Excellent post. Thank you. I agree … take her down. I hope something big happens in Austin tonight and I don’t mean the size of her crowd. If there is any place she does not fit, it is Austin!
Please, please catch up to this fraud. She has to be held accountable. Her lawyer needs to be investigated. What a shady bunch.
And per one of the AK Blogger sites – no quarterly info has been filed on the Alaska Fund Trust account……. well over 250 days LATE!
So, guess if you freeze the account, continue to accept donations, not spend ANY of the funds until you have legal authority…. you don’t have to file a report? hmmmmm — the IRS makes me complete taxes even if I don’t owe any money…… the state makes me file wage reports even if I didn’t pay any wages….. be interesting to know how much money is in there
YEAH MUDDY !!!
It amazes me daily how this klan of misfits, malcontents and liars keeps going but I guess the Cheeeney Kool-Aide is just to good to give up…
Speaking of Ms. Drill, Baby, Drill
It’s time to sign another Defenders of Wildlife letter AGAINST offshore drilling. Click away (the planet thanks you):
https://secure.defenders.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=1759&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=01dxqtu112.app224a
I’ll be on Shannyn’s show in a few minutes to talk about it!
In case you’re wondering, here’s the local media spin on Sarah’s show tonight. Our local DNC is hosting another option that I’ll be attending:
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Sarah-Palin-coming-to-Austin-92357999.html
I enjoyed listening to all three of you.
Isn’t there anything in the universe that can take this GRIFTER down? She’s covered in more teflon than Ronald Reagan.
I’m staring to wonder the same thing
“No money has been distributed on behalf of Sarah Palin from that trust fund,” Van Flein wrote. Not to be paranoid, but why does Van Flein qualify the sentence with “on behalf of Sarah Palin”? Has money been distributed from the fund or not?
Exactly–word-parsing is Van Flein’s specialty.
Not only this illegal “trust fund”………but her PAC can ONLY be established IF she is running for an office.
Hello! She is not a candidate for any office. The PAC has to be dissolved as well…and any money has to be paid back to it that she has used to enrich herself and her “gang”. This is a Federal Election Law I think….or something along those lines. How she is going to dance around this one with the Feds sitting right there….means that someone is paying someone off to look the other way high up in the Fed govt.
It has been wrong from the start and I can’t see how anyone is baffled in any way. What magic pills of DUH has everyone all dunced-up in this country? It is mind boggling that we are all that damn dizzy.
I might suggest that you do more research regarding PACs and their regulation under US Law. The law is rather broad regarding who can create them and a bit less broad regarding who can contribute to them. The law is very broad, however, in regards to how much of the money collected must be spent on candidates in an election.
There are a multitude of different PAC specifications each which come with their own list of legal does and don’ts.
She’s calling travelgate a tie? (26-0-1) Gimme a break. She got caught.
I’d like to see someone investigate that Personnel Board, personally.
Yeah seriously. She seems to be getting off the hook easily. Plus she gets to gloat about it too. Rather infuriating.
Personnel Board – kiss, kiss – both cheeks, you get to guess which end.
Hi Linda,
Great post:-)
Love your work Linda, but I’m not sure your use of the word “astroturf” fits what I see as the generally accepted definition – e.g. FreedomWorks etc.
Astroturf = making something seem as if it springs up organically–from the grassroots–when it is really the result of money and organization.
I’ve said for a long time now that paid Palin “advisors” like Rebecca Mansour are seeding, strategizing and passing stories to all of the Palinista blogs for crossposting…which is why they run the exact same blogposts. That just doesn’t happen with Progressive blogs. We crosspost but you won’t find literally 20-30 blogs with the same story at the same time.
Has any one seen this? PALIN CLAIMED THAT BOTH HER GRANDFATHER’s WERE CANADIAN BOOTLEGGERS!
http://www.thespec.com/article/759724
Susan Clairmont
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 28, 2010)
“Neither of Palin’s grandfathers was a bootlegger, nor did either come from Saskatchewan, Alberta or Manitoba,” McGinniss told me.
“She must have felt that because her appearance in Hamilton, Ontario Canada did not receive extensive U.S. media coverage she could say anything.
And so, in an attempt to bond with her audience — in order to assure that she received their adulation as well as her $100,000 speaking fee —
she told them things she thought they’d like to hear, no matter whether true or false.”
Has any one seen this? PALIN CLAIMED THAT BOTH HER GRANDFATHER’s WERE CANADIAN BOOTLEGGERS!
http://www.thespec.com/article/759724
Susan Clairmont
The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 28, 2010)
“Neither of Palin’s grandfathers was a bootlegger, nor did either come from Saskatchewan, Alberta or Manitoba,” McGinniss told me.
“She must have felt that because her appearance in Hamilton, Ontario Canada did not receive extensive U.S. media coverage she could say anything.
And so, in an attempt to bond with her audience — in order to assure that she received their adulation as well as her $100,000 speaking fee —
she told them things she thought they’d like to hear, no matter whether true or false.”
Apologies, did not mean to post twice.
I noticed in the New York Magazine article this weekend they implied that SarahPac was the legal defense fund. The skipped right over the Trust. Van Flea’s strategy of confusion may be working. A letter to the editor may be in order to explain all of Sarah’s slush funds.
What ever funds “Drill Palin Drill” has should be used to help clean up the oil spill, Ya Think?
A question – you’re saying if someone tried to make a contribution to the fund, the money would be accepted? But that in truth the fund is frozen? Would a person’s donation actually be accepted then the money “frozen” in the account? It would be interesting for someone on here to make a $5 donation to see if the transaction actually goes through. What would that say if the fund were technically frozen but it still receives money? (Arghhhhh…… I knew I should have had more coffee before trying to untwist the latest with SP)
As the trial in Knoxville comes to an end, I am surprised that it is the “hacker” that is on trial rather than the ex-governor who used a private email account to transact government business. The emails are there for people to read. They are not the communications of someone at the “mansion” writing about Sarah’s family. I am always amazed that it is someone else who takes the blame while Sarah walks away from the mess unharmed.
Sarah stretched the truth when she described how her daughter was without a telephone for fear of receiving a threatening message. Yet, Bristol’s facebook (my space?) communications with her friends described how Sarah punished Bristol by taking away her cell phone for a few days. Hypocrisy?
mcclatchy…now that is what NEWS and a NEWS ORGANIZATION is and should be ALL about….the others PALE in comparison……again, well deserved kudos for seeking and finding the truth……we shouldn’t expect or accept anything less……our founding fathers wouldn’t……they would also be proud……
Is there enough bloggers throughout the United States to expose
EVIL $ARAH? I read a number of blogs from Alaska. Thank you
for exposing Palin. Thank you for excellent reporting.
After the ruling today for the young college student in Tennessee,
I pray concerned citizens of Alaska will see that every corrupt member of the
Palin family has their day in court.
I know SP and her buddies are as corrupt as Wall Street Bankers.
Justice must be dealt to this “ROUGE” family before more innocent
people are hurt.
Please Alaska, citizens of Alaska, don’t allow any stone to be unturned.
Bring the Palin family to their knees.
You heard it here!
Palin may find another venue since her lustre is tarnishing:
Evangelical Leadership.
More raking in hard earned money, off of the folks who haven’t a clue.
Speaking in tongues…as per usual.
[Isn't that a gaggy thought?]