Palin's legal fund challenged as ethics violation

[Tab]

Source: Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An ethics complaint filed Monday against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claims the legal defense fund formed last week to challenge such claims is an ethics violation itself.

The complaint filed with the attorney general's office seeks an investigation by the state personnel board for violations of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. The complainant, Kim Chatman of Eagle River, claims Palin is misusing the governor's office for personal gain by securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts.

The governor's office said Monday the new complaint and others filed against Palin or her staff show a disturbing trend in Alaska politics.

"It's obvious the intent with this unprecedented action against the governor is to see her administration paralyzed and for her to declare personal bankruptcy," Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The new complaint targets the Alaska Fund Trust, which Palin supporter and friend Kristan Cole established last week. Palin has said has said she's accumulated more than $500,000 in legal fees from defending herself against ethics complaints and in Troopergate, the Legislature's probe into the firing of Palin's former public safety commissioner.
...
"Gov. Palin is perched to improperly receive an enormous amount of money for herself and her family and position a pool of pre-paid defense lawyers organized to deflect consequences of wrongdoings," the complaint says.

Chatman told The Associated Press in a phone interview that she voted for Palin as governor in 2006, but now sees her as unethical. Palin "is not holding up her end of the bargain," she said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090428/ap_on_re_us/us_palin_ethics_complaint

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Ethics?

Palin?

In the same sentence?

[sam sarrha]

1. she has a worse 'Fecal Touch' than * did.. stupid is as stupid does

[SpiralHawk]

2. Republicon Homelanders got the FAIL Thingy down to a science

Ptoooey.

[No Elephants]

3. The Palins. The gift that keeps on giving.....to Democrats. Gotta love 'em.

[underpants]

7. RUN BABY RUN!!!

FOUR MORE YEARS!!! FOUR MORE YEARS!!!

Sarah's problem is that as much as she loves the camera (and it loves her) cameras come with microphones....and that's where the problem starts :bounce:

[InfiniteThoughts]

17. enjoyed reading your post ...

[calimary]

21. Welcome to DU!

That is a pretty cool post, isn't it?!

sarah palin. The gift that keeps on giving.

[struggle4progress]

4. Some people will think that it's odd to file an ethics complaint against yourself and then use that

as an excuse to collect money. I dunno: perhaps it doesn't seem so odd to the teabag-waving pro-torture secessionists, who are concerned that the President hasn't yet personally shown his birth certificate to all 300 million Americans, and who are outraged by the idea that the Federal government might actually prepare for hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, or pandemics -- but outside that demographic, a number of people will consider it odd

[zbdent]

5. "in the same sentence?"

yes ...

"To Sarah Palin, the concept of ethics is about as foreign as the quantum physics of a solar system in the belt of Orion is to an ant in an anthill in Brazil ..."

[ejpoeta]

6. didn't ted stevens have a legal defense fund, too? i didn't know they weren't supposed to do that.

[rainbow4321]

12. Her fund is a little different, I think

I have a link to it but it's on my home computer. Basically, she has included everyone in her family and anyone who is her "colleague", as she phrased it...all those people can access this fund with no questions asked. Part of it says no kind of documentation needs to be given to the trust fund manager in order to get the money out.
Now would you not think that SOME sort of legal bills would need to be providedto the fund??? Papertrail, maybe??

Other thing with it, at the end of it, they are very clear that NO ONE will get access to the books except the trust manager and that those books don't have to be handed over to ANY court. Guess they are planning ahead for lawsuits over the fund.
Final thing, it even gives an outline for minors getting access to the fund. Now, why would a minor need to get access to a governor's legal fund?
I'd give you the link but I'm not at home...google Alaska Fund Trust and you should get the site for it. There is an option to download the document and read it's fine print.

[ejpoeta]

14. oh. well, when you put it that way!!! it just sounds like a recipe for

problems. heck, i need to submit a bill or something just to get reimbursed for my dental bills! i can see why there are questions about this. why are all her family and 'colleagues' included. and no one can look at the books? yeah. doesn't sound too good to me. thanks for the info. i had NO idea!! LOL!]

all i can say is.... thank god this woman is nowhere near the presidency right now. could you imagine!

[bluedeminredstate]

19. Does it state what the funds must be used for?

Does it have to be directly related to her atty's fees or can Piper get herself a new Louis Vuitton bag when her other one goes out of style? It seems that if family has access to this fund then that money would have to be declared as income if it didn't go towards atty fees.
The whole thing sounds just like the way this family operates - shady, sleazy and self-serving.
I eagerly await the day that Alaska reporters start digging around into the construction of her house the Todd and "his Buddies" built at the same time Sarah's new sports arena was being built down the street from her house.She managed to put the town into serious debt over that debacle, and acted like she was running a nation and not a town of 6,000 people. Really, an SUV for the mayor of Wasilla? She should consider herself lucky that her days as mayor haven't left her fighting off investigation after investigation.

[Ian David]

8. Ethics? I'll find you some and get right back to ya! n/t

[Demeter]

9. Catch 22

There's no legal way to do an illegal thing, same goes for unethical.

[Mr. Sparkle]

10. She really is the gift that keeps on giving !!

:D

[ejpoeta]

15. in some ways i would LOVE for her to be the nominee in 2012.

but it also scares the crap out of me because supposed democrats like her and think she'd be great! i always look at them in shock. are you friggin crazy! personally, i think these 'democrats' who didn't vote for obama have some issues with the color of their president, if you catch my drift.

[Happyhippychick]

11. In what respect Charlie?

You betcha!

[Titonwan]

13. Poor Sarah...

I bet she wished she hid in the log pile now, instead of answering the door to McCrazy's campaign. She was a patsy and a hail mary pass by an old perv who saw he had zero chances of being President. Couldn't happen to a better pair of assholes.

[ejpoeta]

16. what has happened to her is of her own making. she can blame the media all she wants,

but she turned herself into a caricature and then just went from there to where she is right now. the only thing mccain did was to bring her crazy onto the national stage. and she gladly winked her way into the hearts and minds of her fellow crazies.

[postman07]

18. Public defender

I think all public officials should use public defenders. If they are good enough for the people, they are good enough for the people that represent the people.

[calimary]

22. Welcome to DU, to you, too!

Interesting point you make there!

[Tab]

20. It's a very curious document

http://www.thealaskafundtrust.com/site/downloads/alaska_fund_trust.zip

The FAQ on the site says it's to only be used for legal expenses that have to be submitted.

The document itself is much different. First, it says anyone can choose their own lawyer and set the fee. Second, it names the only beneficiary as Sarah Palin, although POTENTIAL beneficiaries may end up being friends and family, and certain staff members, and roughly it can be used for anything in connection with defending against charges and accusations and generally just dealing with correcting her public image (I'm paraphrasing, of course). Under that definition, if she wants to attend a publicity event in Las Vegas and bring her wholesome family along, plane tickets and private rooms for Piper would be justified.

BUT DON'T STOP - THERE'S MORE. There's a clause called "Right of Withdrawal" - every year, any unused funds may be divided equally among the beneficiaries (remember, there's only one beneficiary to start - Sarah Palin). To withdraw their share, the beneficiary simply has to request in writing some amount, as long as it doesn't exceed their share. No justification need be given for a withdrawal, unlike when they seek reimbursement. In other words, this could be an undocumented private slush fund for Todd and Sarah and they don't have to do anything except pull the money out once a year. If there were 100 beneficiaries, whatever is in the fund could be divided 100 ways, but if there's only one or two or so beneficiaries, then that one or those two could get everything in the fund each year, no questions asked.

This, to my mind, totally stands contrary to what is implied in the FAQ, that it is for legal expenses only. First, it can be used to reimburse anything in connection with image repair, and then anything else left over can be withdrawn and doesn't have to be justified at all, just asked for.

[rainbow4321]

24. No kidding...I took time to read it, also

The FAQ section sure as hell doesn't go with the document...guess the FAQ stuff was meant for the MSM consumption and soundbites. Heaven forbid that they actually download and read the fine print.
Interesting part is how they take time to define "minor" and how the minor's rights/guardian pertain to withdrawl of money.. WTF??? Let's see, who are the minors in her family?? Trig, Tripp, Willow, and Piper.
The legal guardian of any of those can withdraw money. Hmm. Gee, that DOES include LEVI..guess she didn't think THAT part thru. Unless she plans on stripping him of his guardian/parental rights???


And she is already thumbing her nose at the courts with the last paragraph saying that the trust manager doesn't have to hand the trust information over to the courts. So much for transparency!! If she was serious about THAT bullshit, she'd have their books online so ANYone can search the money flow columns.

[Tab]

25. And just to reiterate the first part of my post

(I was talking more about the "Rights of Withdrawal") but as I mentioned in the first part, the document it allows each beneficiary to select their attorney and set the fee. What I wasn't explicit about - well, you know, since you read the document - but for anyone else - it gives the beneficiary the "sole and absolute right" to set the fee. I forget the exact wording, but the gist of it is, they can set any fee they want, and the trustee has no power to disagree - which makes the concept of a "trustee" a sham. Who's to say they can't agree to pay a family friend a million dollars an hour? Any members of their family a lawyer??

[gratuitous]

23. Someone call the whaaaa-mbulance for mouthpiece Sharon Leighow

"It's obvious the intent with this unprecedented action against the governor is to see her administration paralyzed and for her to declare personal bankruptcy," Palin spokeswoman Sharon Leighow said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

And just how precedented is it for the state's chief executive to set up a slush fund for herself and anyone she chooses that purports to put itself beyond the reach of any public review or scrutiny?