Troopergate: fired official says Palin lied to ABC

Big lies, little lies.

GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has made a lot of noise about how she supposedly opposed the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" -- a taxpayer-supported boondoggle that Palin had actually lobbied hard for -- and even after she scuttled the project in the wake of taxpayer and Congressional outrage, kept the money.

A lie? Certainly an attempt to mislead US voters into thinking she did not support or lobby for the Bridge to Nowhere.

Now comes word of another, apparently bald-faced lie from Palin.

In her much-watched ABC TV interview last week, Palin claimed that neither she nor her husband pressured former Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire Palin's sister's Alaska State Trooper ex-husband.

But Monegan has gone on the record that Palin was "not telling the truth":

"She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," said Walt Monegan, the Alaskan official whose dismissal by Sarah Palin is the focus of a state investigation known as "Troopergate". "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."

Palin had said in the interview that she dismissed Monegan for "poor job performance" and that neither she nor her husband had pressured the commisoner. But Monegan says he was summoned to a meeting with Palin's husband, Todd, soon after she was elected:

"I was called to her Anchorage formal Governor's office to talk with Todd Palin about an issue that was a private family matter," recounted Monegan. Todd became "upset," Monegan recalled, when told the allegations had already been investigated and the case would not be re-opened.

"When Sarah later called to tell me the same thing, I thought to myself, 'I may not be long for this job.'" But, Monegan said, he stood by his position. "I held the public trust. As Chief, I was responsible."

Monegan tried to reason with the Palins:

Monegan said he tried to persuade the first couple to drop the matter. "As a cop for 35 years I'm pretty familiar with issues that come up in divorce cases," and said his argument to both Todd and Sarah was, "if this was so egregious, why didn't you bring it up sooner? Why did you wait until several years later?"

Monegan was, indeed, fired, eventually leading to a state investigation only now getting under way.

Governor Palin initially agreed to "cooperate fully" with the Alaska state legislative investigation but since being chosen as John McCain's running mate both she and her husband have refused to testify voluntarily. Friday the legislature issued a subpoena for Todd Palin.

And, it looks like Monegan has corroborating materials to support his claims:

Monegan, who gave sworn testimony behind closed doors for nearly eight hours last week, said he also provided the State's investigator with copies of e-mails he received from the Governor in which she referred in disparaging terms to her former brother-in-law.

"This is not a 'he said she said' situation. Others were contacted by Todd and Sarah as well," according to Monegan, who said he was confident the investigation would find adequate documentation to corroborate his testimony.