A fair hearing

Thomas Van Flein, Sarah Palin's big time Anchorage lawyer, is upset.

In two letters released Wednesday, Thomas Van Flein called the investigation "unlawful and unconstitutional" and said the man hired to run it, former prosecutor Stephen Branchflower, has a conflict of interest because he's a friend of the fired commissioner. Citing "your seemingly biased conduct of the investigation in recent weeks," he urged Branchflower to stop interviewing witnesses — the second time this month that he's asked Branchflower to stand down.
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Van Flein wrote that both French and Branchflower are friends of Monegan but apparently failed to disclose those relationships to the Legislature. He did not say what he was basing those statements on or how he became aware of the tip line. |ADN|

The first thing to recognize about this charge is that it's almost certainly got some truth in it. Alaska doesn't have all that many people. Hollis French and Stephen Branchflower are both former prosecutors. How could they not have a prior relationship with Walter Monegan, the ousted public safety commissioner? The relevant question isn't whether a relationship exists, but whether the relationship is sufficiently close to make the results of the investigation suspect.

Van Flein has, of course, provided no evidence whatsoever regarding the nature of the relationships between Branchflower, French and Monegan. Count on Republicans using the existence of the allegation to prove the point and to use this to continue to try to muddy the waters.

At the end of the day, the thing to keep in mind is that we're talking about a legislative investigation, not a judicial proceeding. While this doesn't mean that the investigation is licensed to ignore considerations of fairness and neutrality, it does mean that we can't rely on our intuitions about trials to tell us what standards of procedural fairness are appropriate. Put another way, there's no standard of procedural fairness that could be followed which could possibly render the result of the investigation to be anything other than a political document.

How, then, can we put any stock in the results of that investigation? The answer is by reading it and evaluating the evidence and arguments that it presents. Luckily, as Van Flein reminds us, we'll have every opportunity to second guess Branchflower:

[Van Flein] has requested under Alaska's open records law copies of all documents describing the hiring of Branchflower for the Troopergate probe, plus any "minutes, memos, notes and agendas" related to the investigation and e-mails among state lawmakers on the Legislative Council to Branchflower or French.