Baseless Rumors

Most of the following posts/stories seem to come back to quotes from the same few people, i.e. "from a source connected sometimes to CNN" (which seems to be Dennis Zaki) and to quotes given to Brad Friedman by Shannyn Moore. The governor's legal counsel has pointed out that they are false.

But let's look at how a false rumor spreads like a wild fire with nothing to back it up but baseless speculation...

From Brad Friedman of the BRAD BLOG:

UPDATED: Alaskan reporter Shannyn Moore offers The BRAD BLOG hints about reasons for Alaska Gov's resignation
FURTHER UPDATE: Sources say embezzlement scandal, federal indictments may soon break concerning use of Wasilla Sport Complex building materials for Palin's home...

[...]

UPDATE: Alaskan Sarah Palin authority (and occasional BRAD BLOG guest blogger) Shannyn Moore, who broke the news at HuffPo today, tells me she believes, with good reason, that there is an "iceberg scandal that's about to break. She's doing damage control."

She says Palin is "resigning as part of damage control" due to a scandal that is "not of a family nature." ...

"The governor would not be able to continue her job when it comes out," she told me on the phone just now, before adding: "Why would Mark Sanford not resign, but Sarah Palin did? Her family didn't even know about the resignation until they were standing with her by the lake" when she made her announcement.

Yes. It seems another shoe, apparently a big one, may indeed be ready to drop, perhaps within the next week or so. Perhaps earlier now that everyone will be poking around up there, according to the folks I'm hearing from in AK.

FURTHER UPDATE: Okay, I've now been able to get independent information from multiple sources that all of this precedes what are said to be possible federal indictments against Palin, concerning an embezzlement scandal related to the building of Palin's house and the Wasilla Sports Complex, built during her tenure as Mayor. Both structures, it is said, feature the "same windows, same wood, same products." Federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent, according to the Alaska sources.

The BRAD BLOG has not been able to receive confirm from any federal sources on this. Our information comes from local Alaskans who follow Palin, and who have been keeping an eye on this for some time, while keeping it quiet at the request of federal investigators.

Daily Kos:

Did "Housegate" do Sarah in?

[...]

First, in today's [Daily Beast]:

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide open state.

Now for the rest. In today's Firedoglake.com we have this:

SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin's snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice's Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.

Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few "buddies," according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.

Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an addition $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

Whether the alleged federal investigation into the Palins and SBS prompted her resignation could not be confirmed.

In yesterday's Firedoglake.com we have this:

Update: This just in my inbox, from a source connected sometimes to CNN:

"Here's a quote I got from law enforcement here in Alaska yesterday afternoon regarding Palin "a criminal indictment is pending authorization."

Also Daily Kos:

The prosecution just rested in the Ted Stevens trial, in which he is accused of accepting $250,000 worth of free renovations to his house from VECO, an oil pipeline company. VECO workers labored for months remodeling Stevens' home at the company's expense.

The Palin's two-story, four bedroom, four bath home on Lake Lucille is worth $552,000. "Todd Palin built the house with friends who were contractors, he said in a recent television interview."

At the same time the mighty Todd was building the house, the Wasilla Sports Complex was under construction right down the road. Just who were these "friends who were contractors" who did such a huge favor for the Palins by building their house for them? Was it payback for the sports complex contracts? Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice asks the question, below the fold.

From MSNBC:



From Max Blumenthal:

The suddenness of her announcement raises the question about whether Palin resigned to avert a major scandal. One logical place to start looking is the affair that has Alaska political circles buzzing: an alleged scandal centered around a building contractor, Spenard Building Supplies, with close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd.

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.

From Huffington Post/Shannyn Moore:

For weeks the rumors of a criminal investigation against the governor have been brewing. They are rumors, but are swirling fresh again with Palin's resignation. I'm holding my breath for the other "Naughty Monkey" to drop.

From Huffington Post/AKMuckRaker:

Then there is the other matter. In Alaska it's become known as "the iceberg." The iceberg is rumored to be a piece of news that's so damaging, and so big, it will sink the S.S. Palin. The rumors also exist that it's coming soon. Speculation about IRS problems, issues with other three-letter organizations, more ethics complaints, and embezzlement abound. Questions have been raised about the construction of Palin's house by a bunch of Todd's buddies, at the same time that a giant sports complex was being built just down the road in Wasilla, and right after building codes had been abolished by the then mayor of Wasilla, one Sarah Palin. Do we know anything for sure? No. But the recent claim that the breaking of this scandal is imminent seems coincidental to say the least.

Firedoglake.

Oxdown Gazette:

At a news conference, held in front of the windows in her home that look exactly like some of the windows in the Wasilla Sports Complex (Palin's most dubious achievement as Wasilla mayor), Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced she will be resigning her duties in two weeks. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, the man who put the "lack" in "lackluster," will assume her duties at that time.

[...]

Although speculation about possible investigations into aspect of her conduct, both as Alaska Governor, and in her earlier job as Wasilla Mayor, has been rampant, there is no hard data to indicate that any of the rumored investigations into Palin or the Palins will come to a conclusion soon.

[...]

Update: This just in my inbox, from a source connected sometimes to CNN:

"Here's a quote I got from law enforcement here in Alaska yesterday afternoon regarding Palin "a criminal indictment is pending authorization."

Muriel Kane:

Alaskan blogger Shannyn Moore suggested at Huffington Post that “rumors of an ‘iceberg scandal’ have been circulating” even before today’s announcement.

[...]

Moore later spoke by phone with BradBlog’s Brad Friedman and told him that “Palin is ‘resigning as part of damage control’ due to a scandal this is ‘not of a family nature.’”

[...]

Mike Brody, reporting for MyFOX National, asks “Is Palin Facing Embezzlement charges?”

“When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin abruptly announced Friday that she would leave office more than a year early, many wondered what she would do and why she was resigning,” Brody writes. “Now we may have some answers.”

The article, which is being carried by multiple Fox affiliates, continues, “Reports have surfaced that Palin may have quit her job because she was trying to avert a major, yet-to-be-disclosed corruption scandal.”

“The crux of the rumor is that Alaska building company Spenard Building Supplies (SBS) was awarded a contract by Palin to build a hockey arena in Wasilla, Alaska, and in return, SBS helped construct the Palins’ home,” Brody writes, before linking to online reports already noted above.

Nathan P. Origer:

Sources are saying that Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation as Alaska Governor is actually damage control because a major embezzlement scandal is about to erupt involving construction projects in her home town of Wasilla, Alaska.

Multiple sources have been digging around in the wake of Sarah Palin’s cryptic resignation speech Friday and they’ve found that when Palin was Mayor of her home town of Wasilla, AK in 2002, she was influental in the construction of the Wasilla Sports Complex and hockey arena. First of all, the $12mil+ project ended up in the hands of contractors who were friends of friends of Palin. Secondly, at around the same time the sports complex was being built, so was Palin’s new house. What’s interesting about that is the house is constructed from the exact same materials the sports complex was built with. The windows in both structures are the same, the wood is the same, pretty well everything.

When the house was being built, Palin, being Mayor at the time, influenced the bylaw requiring building permits in the town so that now there is no official list of the contractors who worked on her house.

One commenter offers a potential cold-water splash of reality, though:

Their house was built *before* the contract for the sports complex was even awarded, so I guess “about the same time” could be somewhat accurate. Also, the decision was made in May, just not publicly announced until this weekend, so I’m not sure which members of her family didn’t know, but I’ll bet if you look hard enough, you’ll find someone related to her who hadn’t heard. Oh, and as for the wood being the same as the sports complex, they both came from SBS. I’ll bet the wood I got from SBS is the “same” too. What does that say about me?

SBS is a very politically connected company. I’m not saying there isn’t something fishy going on here, I’m just saying you don’t have to reach so hard to try and paint such an ominous set of “coincidences” as you are. That’s not reporting, that’s simply pushing and agenda. Perhaps you’re looking to be hired by Fox News?

From Associated Content:

It now looks as if Sarah Palin might be looking at a federal indictment. A federal indictment on embezzlement charges. Sarah Palin facing federal indictment charges might not fit well into a basketball metaphor, but her resignation Friday might be because federal prosecutors have compiled a "slam dunk" case against her.

[...]

It looks as if all these people might have been justified in their suspicions. And for want of a better moniker, not to mention finally getting away from all the "gate" scandals, calling the Sarah Palin federal indictment following the attempted press conference subterfuge the "Iceberg Scandal" works on so many levels.

From AKMuckraker:

I present “House Gate”. There will be more digging on this one in the days to come, but here’s what we know now.

Judah Freed:

A pending federal embezzlement indictment may explain why Sarah Palin yesterday suddenly announced her mid-term resignation as the governor of Alaska, leaving her future plans unclear.

[...]

Instead, I'm believing the assertion of investigative reporter Brad Friedman in The Brad Blog, citing confirmation from "multiple sources" in Alaska, that Palin will resign by the end of July to get ahead of expected U.S. criminal charges for embezzling federal funds during her term as mayor.

The charges flow from federal investigators discovering that the Wasilla Sports Complex and Palin's house in Wasilla feature the "same windows, same wood, same products" – all installed by the same construction crews.

L. Steven Sieden:

Another theory is that she will soon be indicted by the feds for embezzlement. She may be facing a federal indictment for embezzlement, according to Huffington Post blogger Shannyn Moore.

Moore is reporting that the so-called "iceberg scandal" involves the use of Wasilla Sports Complex building materials for Palin's residence during her tenure as mayor. According to Moore, "Both structures, it is said, feature the same windows, same wood, and same products."

ChattahBox:

Now, it appears Palin may have been giving up her office just a few steps ahead of federal investigators who are planning to serve up criminal indictments against both Sarah and her husband, “First Dude” Todd Palin.

Palin’s short and tenuous term of governor has been marked by scores of investigations into her alleged ethics violations. Now, the so called, “iceberg scandal,” brewing since 2002 during Palin’s tenure as Wasilla’s mayor, which involves a shady, possible criminally corrupt, connection between the builder of the Wasilla Sport Complex and Palin’s lakefront home, has come home to roost.

According to Alaskan reporter Shannyn Moore, as reported on Brad’s Blog and the Huffington Post the federal investigation centers on claims that Palin steered the contract for the Wasilla Sports Complex to Spenard Building Supplies in exchange for the construction and building materials of her home, and the scandal is about to break wide open.

TheSpreadIt:

Sarah Palin Federal Indictment is the speculation that is going around the world wide net today.Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has allegedly been forced to resign because of a federal indictment pending in an embezzlement scandal that claims that she illegally obtained important financial favors and gifts from Spenard Building Supplies/SBS.
The former governor is embroiled in an embezzlement scandal that revolves around the $12.5 million sports complex that she ordered to be built while Mayor in Wasilla.

Jim Brogan:

Sarah Palin Indictment - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin reportedly resigned because of a federal indictment pending in an embezzlement scandal that allegedly involves her receiving huge financial favors from Spenard Building Supplies.

Dennis Zaki:

Big dirty scandal about to hit the Palin universe
Evidenced by Palin's announcement that she's stepping down today. Stay tuned...

Previously from Zaki:

Rumor Central: Big story still heading towards the S.S. Palin
A deal-breaker is heading toward the Palins. Can it be stopped? I don't think so. Will it topple the house of cards, all signs say yes. Stay tuned...

Seems like Dennis and Shannyn sure know how to get the word out.