Documents!

On Aug. 28, Van Flein deposed Michael Mongale, a state manager with the workers' compensation division. Monagle said there was no truth to rumors that the governor or her office had requested Wooten's workers' comp file.

"Absolutely not," said Monagle, who said that the file is "in my office in a locked file cabinet" for safekeeping.

However, John Cyr, executive director of the Public Safety Employees Association, the union that represents Wooten and other state troopers, disclosed a document that appears to contradict Monagle’s sworn deposition.

A routing slip dated Aug. 21 from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development shows Wooten’s workers comp file was pulled and sent to the attention of Mongale.

“Wooten, as requested,” the routing slip says, which was made out to the attention of “Mike Mongale.”

“A request came in to return all of Wooten’s [worker’s comp] files to Juneau [the state capital],” according to a note and routing slip faxed to Cyr from the worker’s compensation division. “The person who asked to route the files was told the files were being copied for the governor.”

Under Alaska’s strict privacy laws, Wooten would have had to provide written authorization to allow such access. Cyr said the governor does not have the authority to peek into the private employment and medical files of state employees. |Jason Leopold|

Emphasis added.

I want to know who wrote the note. Is it the person Branchflower deposed? More broadly, I'd like to see the provenance of the routing slip established. Looking at it, there seem to be plenty of clues.

But really, that's just the beginning of the potential document trail here. As Leopold reports, there was a coordinated campaign within the highest echelons of the Governor's office to intercede in a workers compensation case. This campaign featured, among other things, First Dude Todd Palin stalking Trooper Wooten in hopes of snapping an incriminating photo. What he came up with was a picture of Wooten riding on a snowmachine while on light duty following surgery for a back injury that he received while on duty. Todd Palin then passed it along to the Frank Bailey, who wrote up a report on official stationary and forwarded the material to the Workers Compensation Office.

Moreover, it is clear that this campaign -- it was too open and flagrant to call it a conspiracy -- was not isolated, but was part of a pattern of investigation aimed at finding a pretence, any pretence, to justify sanctioning Wooten. And there are a lot of documents waiting to be revealed. For example:

Cyr said more than 1,000 e-mails were exchanged between Bailey, and Sarah and Todd Palin, and other officials during this period that, if released, would show that Palin had used her office to keep tabs on Wooten.

Cyr said he filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of the union to obtain the e-mails, but the governor’s office said it would cost the union $88,000 for the documents. |Jason Leopold|

What a load of horseshit. File that ULP Brother Cyr!

In terms of Branchflower's investigation, Palin is already claiming executive privilege for the emails. We'll see how that goes. I say, somebody should pony up the eighty eight grand.

Bonus Content: Primary sources you say? Here's Cyr's complaint (pdf!), which is the document upon which much of Leopold's article is based. For my money, the best reading is Section 2, in which Cyr lays out the law regarding confidential information contained in personnel files. Short summary: the law distinguishes between use, disclosure and acquisition of confidential information, explicitly prohibiting all three when advancing a personal interest.