Full Statement from Thomas Van Flein Regarding the E-Mails (Update)

A recent article discusses what purports to be a new "revelation" that Todd Palin was a "powerful first dude." To most Alaskans, and to the millions of people who read "Going Rogue" this is neither new nor a revelation. Like many married couples, including political 'power couples,' it is common for a spouse to play the role of key advisor to the other spouse. The Palins were no different. Todd Palin had official and unofficial duties, but one thing was clear: he was a key advisor to Governor Palin and involved in her efforts to improve the State of Alaska. Officially, in addition to the duties traditionally expected of the spouse of the Governor, Todd Palin was put in charge of a Workforce Development commission with the goal of increasing vocational education opportunities and awareness. But unlike some spouses of elected officials, Todd Palin did not travel with an entourage, had no designated office, had no title other than "First Dude", received no pay, and had no staff. He donated his time to the people of Alaska by assisting the Governor. Each spouse of the chief executive is free to define his or her own role. From the policy oriented Hillary Clinton, to the more traditional and charitable work of Laura Bush, to the combined policy/traditionalist role of Michelle Obama, the first spouse takes on the duties within their interests and within the context of their marriage to the chief executive. Todd was no different.

What is interesting is that the same media outlet that today breathlessly reports how close the Palins were while Sarah Palin was Governor--too close for at least one reporter--earlier reported that the Palins were not close enough and headed for divorce. Consistency is not necessarily a hallmark for investigative journalists, but certainly truth should be. Let's look at the most serious accusation made. The article posits that Todd Palin "passed financial information marked 'confidential' from his oil company employer to a state attorney." The author clearly implies that Todd Palin, who was not a member of the British Petroleum management team, obtained secret "financial" information and surreptitiously gave it to a State assistant attorney general. The true facts are as follows: Todd Palin received an email from a third party (an email that was apparently making the rounds in Alaska) and he forwarded that to a state attorney on August 29, 2007. But the information in the email itself was dated February 19, 2004--three and half years earlier--and the information addressed safety performance for 2003 and overall productivity. Of course, as a highly regulated producer in Alaska, this is largely the same information provided to state regulatory agencies, taxing authorities, and even publicly disclosed to its shareholders. See BP Annual Report and Accounts 2003. The latter part of the email referred to performance data for 2005 again analyzing production, costs and safety. So there are two distinct errors in the article: (1) the email itself was circulating in Alaska and was simply forwarded to Todd by a third party, it was not an email that was sent by BP to Todd Palin wherein he was told it was "confidential" and (2) the type of information within the email was years old and all, if not most, was a matter of public record under the tight regulatory strictures BP operates under and its release of data to shareholders, securities regulators, the department of Revenue, and the state oil and gas commission, among others.

The bottom line is that this story reveals nothing new. Todd Palin was, and remains, a close advisor to the Governor. Those in the administration knew this, and the public knew this. There is nothing unusual, untoward or inappropriate for a spouse of a chief executive to provide guidance, input and hands on assistance.

- Thomas Van Flein, Personal Attorney for Sarah Palin

Update: If you go back and read the e-mails that Todd Palin was copied on or the e-mails that Todd sent out, you'll notice that Todd was acting as nothing more than a conduit between Alaskans and the government. If someone was trying to reach Sarah Palin, it probably makes sense for that person to reach out to Todd, considering that he is the person closest to her. A similar situation exists here at C4P. We get e-mails all the time from people who have questions about their book orders, etc. We try to get that information to the someone who can answer those questions. The role that we play in getting information to the appropriate people is not that different from the primary role that Todd Palin played in his wife's administration.

It's absolutely clear from the all the e-mails that that Governor Palin was responsible for the decisions made in her administration. Take for example one e-mail that is getting sensationalistic coverage from MSNBC: it was an e-mail exchange between Ivy Frye and Todd Palin regarding a judicial appointment. All Todd Palin did was ask Frye a question based on concerns he heard from local Alaskans. Frye informed Todd that Sarah Palin was going to make a decision later on about the appointment. Todd Palin's e-mail expressing his constituent concerns was the extent of his involvement on this issue as Sarah Palin made the final call. As you can see if you read the actual e-mails and ignore the MSNBC coverage, sometimes Governor Palin copied her husband on emails to ensure that nothing slipped through the cracks. Read the emails in question and judge for yourselves. In fact, read all of the emails and send us what you find. I'm betting that we'll find a lot of instances of good things that the media is not reporting -- things that show Governor Palin to be a fiscal hawk, etc. Let's call this our own C4P email project. Go through them and pull out the good ones, note the link, email us your list of links. We'll publish a long list and make our own story! Here is a link to where you can access the e-mails.

Update #2: As for the travel issue, the governor has a large family. She ran for Governor as a working mom--this was not something the people of Alaska did not know. The "cost" of travel when minor children had to travel with her is expensive. Up until very recently, the Palins were living on a middle class income. Todd made $45,000 before taxes, and the Governor made $120,000 before taxes. It costs a lot of money to pay for intrastate travel in Alaska ($300-$600). Nit-pick all you want about the travel and the tanning bed (which, if you actually read the email, she was not hiding anything. She was simply saying that she didn’t want any fanfare about it because it was no one’s business), but one irrefutable truth remains: even with all these so-called “extravagances,” Governor Palin spent less on the Governor's Mansion operations than her predecessors and spent less on all personal and travel expenses for herself and her family than her predecessors. Period. End of story.