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ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Republican vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin will not cooperate with a legislative inquiry
into her firing of an Alaska official, her campaign said, labeling
the probe “partisan.”
Spokesman Ed O’Callaghan said
Monday (Tuesday in Manila) that the investigation had become
“tainted” by Democratic state lawmakers targeting Palin, the
governor of Alaska who Republican White House hopeful John McCain
chose as his running mate late last month.
“I think it’s fair to say
that the governor is not going to cooperate with that investigation
so long as it remains tainted and run by partisan individuals that
have a predetermined conclusion,” O’Callaghan said.
Last week, Alaska lawmakers voted
5 to 3 to subpoena Palin’s husband, Todd, in the legislative
investigation into whether his wife improperly attempted to fire a
state trooper who was her former brother-in-law.
The committee also subpoenaed
Palin’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff.
The panel had agreed beforehand,
however, that a subpoena of Sarah Palin herself would not be
considered, with the understanding she would agree to an interview
by the investigator, retired prosecutor Stephen Branchflower.
In July, Palin fired Public
Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, who has alleged that he was
removed because of his resistance to pressure to dismiss Alaska
state trooper Mike Wooten, the ex-husband of Palin’s sister Molly
McCann.
Palin rejected the charge, but
the legislature launched an investigation in late July, well before
Palin was chosen by McCain.
At the time, Palin said she and
her staff would cooperate fully with the probe, which has been
dubbed “Troopergate.”
But since she was made the
Republican vice presidential nominee, seven Alaskan agency heads and
members of Palin’s executive staff have canceled or refused to
voluntarily schedule interviews with the investigator.
-- AFP
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