Sarah Palin Defense Fund Was Created Illegally

[nmbluesky]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A legal defense fund set up for Sarah Palin when she was Alaska governor was illegal, an investigator for the state Personnel Board said Thursday.

Investigator Timothy Petumenos said the Alaska Fund Trust inappropriately used the word "official" on its website to describe it, wrongly implying Palin's endorsement as governor.

Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said she will return the money from the fund, which brought in almost $390,000.

Petumenos, however, found that Palin – the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee – acted in good faith and relied on a team of attorneys to make sure the fund was lawful.

Thursday's findings are an outgrowth from a preliminary, confidential report by another board investigator that also implicated Palin. The earlier report was issued less than two weeks after she announced she was resigning from office last July.

In announcing her resignation, Palin cited the toll of the ethics probes as one of the reasons she was stepping down. She has said she racked up at least $500,000 in legal fees.

Palin's friends and supporters created the Alaska Fund Trust in April 2009, limiting donations to $150 per person. The ethics complaint was filed soon after by Eagle River resident Kim Chatman, who alleged Palin was misusing her official position and accepting improper gifts.

The multiple ethics complaints include an investigation by state lawmakers over Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in the so-called Troopergate scandal, as well as a complaint over state-paid trips Palin took with her children as governor.

In the family travel complaint, also investigated by Petumenos, Palin agreed to reimburse the state about $8,000 for costs associated with nine trips taken by her children.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/sarah-palin-defense-fund_n_624833.html

[Spazito]

1. Hmmm $390,000 to be returned...

Geez, that means at least 4 appearances consisting of this:

"Palin:I did. I kinda have a big beef with you too though Bill if you don’t acknowledge that President Obama is wrong on his call for a need for energy policy. Certainly we need that but he is wrong not to acknowledge that we still need on a three-legged stool, the conventional sources of energy to be drilled here, otherwise Bill we are going to be dropped to our knees and bowing to the Saudis, and Venezuela and places like Russia that will keep producing oil and petroleum products, and we will have to let them produce for us because we will still be dependent upon these sources of energy in addition though, too, shifting more towards renewables, which of course we need, and the other leg of that stool is conservation. President Obama… it scares me – it saddens me that the CEO of our nation does not understand that inherent link between the conventional sources of energy that we’re dependent upon and our security, our prosperity, our freedom."

and this:

"Palin: They can’t even get a phone call returned, Bill. The Dutch! They are known…and the Norwegians are known for um dikes, and for cleaning up water and for dealing with spills. They offered to help and yet no… they too with the proverbial can’t even get a phone call back. That is what the Norwegians are telling us and the Dutch are telling us and the entrepreneurial Americans the the company in Maine that has the boom and um the the uh absorbants – those companies that are waiting for the Obama administration eight weeks later for the regulators to come in and say “OK, we’ll purchase from you now and we’ll do all that we can.” That’s where some of the frustration is. Now we saw the same thing with Katrina though didn’t we, so I’m not going to point fingers and make this a partisan issue at all – point fingers at different administrations but um it is that inherent problem that we have with government not necessarily being prepared because our priorities in government are wrong. National security – safety of the people needs to be the top priority. That’s where we need to be funding instead of funding these other things on the periphery that really just get in the way of the private sector’s progress and their ability to produce and to thrive and to prosper and instead our priorities in the national government have been screwed up. Now as governor of Alaska, what I did in dealing with the oil companies, and I’ll betcha 75% of my time was being taken up by energy issues here in this state."

Source of quotes; The Mudflats (awesome Alaska blog!)

http://www.themudflats.net/2010/06/16/palin-humiliated-by-bill-oreilly-what-would-you-do/

[Robert DAH Bruce]

3. Ohh my! Another one o' them "gotcha" posts!

:evilgrin:

[Spazito]

4. Every time the Quitter opens her mouth she provides....

voluminous material for "gotcha" posts, isn't it great!

[LiberalFighter]

2. Were those attorneys she relied on paid for by her or the state?