'Troopergate' Inquiry Reaches Palin Husband

September 12, 2008— -- Alaska state legislators approved subpoenas for the husband of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and 12 others, as part of an ongoing investigation into whether Palin abused her power as state governor.

In a nondescript conference room filled to capacity, a Republican-dominated panel of lawmakers voted to issue subpoenas to force testimony by Alaska "First Gentleman" Todd Palin and a dozen current and former state officials, including aides to Gov. Palin, to determine whether she had misused her authority in firing one of her commissioners in July.

A lawyer for Palin and her aides, Thomas V. Van Flein, said the subpoenas were "a legal issue that will have to be evaluated and discussed with clients."

Special counsel Stephen Branchflower, who is conducting the probe, said Palin was a "central figure" in the events he is investigating. He said the subpoenas were necessary because individuals declined to answer questions voluntarily. Several had previously agreed to interviews with Branchflower, he said, but later cancelled them.

The subpoenas mark the latest chapter in a scandal that began as a local flap but rocketed to the nation's front pages when McCain picked Palin as his running mate nearly two weeks ago.

The probe was prompted by Palin's July 11 firing of her former public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, after he refused to dismiss Mike Wooten, a state trooper who was Palin's ex-brother-in-law. Wooten and Palin's sister had gone through a lengthy and bitter divorce and custody battle in 2005, during which Palin herself had accused Wooten of threatening her and her father. Wooten has denied that.

In his remarks before lawmakers this morning, Branchflower characterized Todd Palin as one of Wooten's chief critics, and said he was involved in a meeting with Monegan and other public officials, in the governor's office, on the topic of Wooten, shortly after his wife was sworn in as governor.

Palin has said she fired Monegan because she wanted to move his department in a "new direction," and he was not being "a team player on budgeting issues."

When the flap erupted in July, Palin maintained her office had not pressured Monegan to fire Wooten. The governor was forced to reframe her position in August, after a recording surfaced of a phone call in which one of her aides, Frank Bailey, discussed firing Wooten with a state trooper official.