Alaska Rep. Accuses McCain-Palin Campaign of Witness Tampering

[JonLP24]

Source: The Public Record

An Alaska Democratic state lawmaker has written a letter to a state trooper official calling for an investigation into possible witness tampering related to the state's ethics probe of Gov. Sarah Palin by people working for or close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign.

In a letter Wednesday to Alaska state trooper director Audie Holloway, Democratic Rep. Les Gara accused the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain of intimidating witnesses and/or pressuring people close to Palin, McCain’s vice presidential running mate, not to comply with subpoenas seeking testimony about whether Palin improperly fired her public safety commissioner.

"Starting after August 29, certain staff for the McCain campaign came to Alaska in an effort to block this investigation," Gara wrote in his letter to Holloway. Gara also issued a press release titled "Legislator Asks Troopers to Look at Possible Witness Tampering."

"There are rumors that upwards of 30 staffers have come to the state since that date," Gara added in his letter to Holloway. "I do not know the roles of the various staff members. Campaign representatives Ed O'Callaghan and Meghan Stapleton have held numerous press conferences in Anchorage to block the investigation. Since then three witnesses have failed to comply with legislative subpoenas, and up to seven more may do the same this coming Friday."

Read more: http://www.pubrecord.org/politics/346-alaska-rep-accuses-mccain-palin-campaign-of-witness-tampering.html

[EC]

1. I hope there are some honest troopers

up there...

[merh]

11. ermmm, isn't it the trooper association that

has been supportive of the legislature's investigation, they don't seem to like the gov pulling her stunts and trying to mess with a trooper's rights and/or his worker comp claims.

[roguevalley]

29. Les Gara is great. the troopers are not amused by all of this and

feel slapped. Go, LES!

[MasonJar]

2. Send this to Keith and Rachel.

[JonLP24]

3. Have any specific addresses available?

trying to find one

[dgibby]

9. [e-mail]

I've sent her stuff and she has ended up doing a segment about one of them. I think she really listens to our concerns. Thanks for posting this! I love the smell of scandal in the morning!:evilgrin: :bounce:

[Window]

20. Me too, as long as it involves a Republican.

:dem:

[JonLP24]

4. I found it

[e-mail]

However I can't remember my e-mail address or password, I haven't logged in for months.

[sellitman]

18. Open up a new one.

Google, Yahoo & Hotmail are free and easy to open up.

[Wizard777]

5. that would be a criminal investigation. No more executive privilege.

But I think McCains advisors are stupid and arrogant enough to hold out for obstruction of justice charges.

[Pete2069]

34. Republicans no longer answer to our law...

Americand fought the law and the law won...

[bobthedrummer]

6. k&r+ a link to an active related GD thread

"2 daughters of Alaska, Susan Lindauer & Sarah Palin: a real spooky politicized conspiracy thread" (started 9-21-2008)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4052105

[JonLP24]

7. kick

:kick:

[liberalaska]

8. Good for Les

He has been a strong voice of reason since this whole Troopergate thing started. I can't wait to see what the Truth Squad tries to do to him for this.

I think that Audie Holloway and most of the Alaska State Troopers are complete professionals and politics will play no part in how they move forward with this. It's too bad we have a governor appointed Attorney General here, and he is implicated in the coverup. I am going to talk to my legislators and see what we need to do to change the law and elect our AG like 37 or 38 states already do.

[northofdenali]

12. True, most of our Troopers are professional and don't

play the game. However, their top managers (remember, all members of AFSCME) DO play politics!

I don't think that will have much bearing on Troopergate; at least I hope not. I agree about the AG's, but am not sure that electing vs. appointing is all that much better. How about they get vetted like our judges? That seems to be an excellent way of keeping politics out of our judicial branch.

Bit by bit, we'll turn this wonderful state back into it's naturally blue status!

:kick:

[liberalaska]

14. If we elect the AG

they are accountable to the people and not to the governor. They would have to pursue the investigation into this because it would be political suicide not to, and for Talis Colberg it is political suicide to do anything about it. If he had a shred of integrity he would try to do something anyway and resign when the governor shuts him down.

But if he was an elected official and pulling the crap that Colberg is, we could already have a recall petition going around to help him do the right thing.

[barbtries]

16. they call themselves the "truth squad"

i would use the words "so-called" whenever referring to them, considering their mission is to keep the truth from coming out.

[patomime]

10. Republicans...

pressuring people... who knew?

:sarcasm:

[sattahipdeep]

13. Please.

msimonian wrote on 09/25/2008 02:24:30 AM:

O'Callahan is a prosecutor. Is he saying that if one of his terrorist suspects decided that he had lawful objections to a subpoena, he could skip out on the hearing as long as he lodged those objections with the court. Please. He knows you don't get to file "lawful objections" to a subpoena and just not show up. The only way you cannot show up when subpoenaed is issued is to have a judge quash the subpoena. And, the witness tampering statute does not require someone to say "don't show up," it only requires inducement. One read of Colberg's letter to the Judiciary Committee makes clear there is at least probable cause that he committed a crime. Van Flein apparently told Todd that he didn't since he filed objections, which is inducing Todd not to come. Colberg and Van Flein need to be investigated.


Gara suggests witness tampering (updated)

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: September 24, 2008 - 12:00 pm



"Something has caused, or in the words of the statute, may have "induced" these witnesses to change their position," Gara wrote. "I do not know whether it is advice from staff for the McCain campaign, state counsel, private counsel, or from others, or whether these individuals have done this independently of advice or suggestions from third persons. But it seems a witness would not risk possible jail time that comes with the violations of a subpoena without advice of others."

http://community.adn.com/adn/node/131806


"I think the best thing about Todd Palin, he's a man's man," family friend Kristan Cole told ABC News.

:rofl:

[chelsea0011]

15. This must be that great leadership we keep hearing about with McCain

[valerief]

17. K&R

:kick:

[sellitman]

19. Jack booted thug bastards!

The cover up will be their downfall

[City Lights]

21. McCain made a spectacular blunder by selecting an un-vetted person as his running mate.

And he'll stop at nothing to protect her. :mad:

[torbird]

22. Just saw this on CNN.com

It's getting wider coverage. Ruh-roh, John!

[pleah]

23. K&MR

[Joe Chi Minh]

24. Boy! With all these subpoenas currently floating in subpoenaspace, the day of

reckoning a-brewing will be some festival for honest Americans. Watergate to the power of n.

[Gadzooks1]

25. And this charge of witness tampering...

surprises who? I'm beginning to think the republicans hold the intellectual property rights to "Fuck you!"

[APPLE_PIE]

27. Fortunately there's more

They may think they own the intellectual property rights to "Fuck you!"


BUT!!!!!


We own the intellectual property rights to "But your mouth will get sore!"

[lakeguy]

35. dude, laugh out loud funny! nt

[thereismore]

26. The coverup worse than crime? nt

[bobd0]

28. Personally, I'd LOVE to see McCain/Palin share a cell rather than The White House

I hope this investigation becomes a behemoth that swallows the entire McCain/Palin campaign and send all of its members off to jail. :)

[GoLeft TV]

30. hahaha

if that's the case, she'd better be careful. McCain has a history of getting freaky with women who've been in beauty pageants.

[mlevans]

36. Now I see.

When McCain said they were soul-mates that was merely a slip of the tongue; he had really meant to say cell-mates.

[GreenTea]

31. Who would ever doubt this when a party (republican) embraces a man like Dick Cheney as their VP?

A conniving, evil, wicked, lying, hateful creature like Cheney...The republican party produces and embraces people like this....with contempt for the law, refusing to honor judges & court subpoenas, tampers with witnesses, refuses to turn over public documents, destroys evidence and then says fuck you to judges, congress, the courts and the American people, Cheney is a public representative who is suppose to be serving the American people & our justice system....Not private interest for himself and his corporate friends.

This the republican party, with two nominees (McCain & Palin) just as ugly and just as corrupt as Cheney and the rest of the greedy, selfish, disgusting republican party (and their ideology)...McCain & Plain fit right in....Of course they are lying and tampering because they too are repulsive ugly republicans!

[burythehatchet]

33. so should I put you down in the Obama column?

:rofl:

[Name removed]

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