Picture: www.knoxnews.com
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In an earlier post, we reported about the statements she eagerly gave afterwards to the waiting journalists outside. They were certainly delighted that they had the very rare opportunity to communicate with Sarah Palin without having their questions "pre-screened".
Did Sarah Palin commit perjury while giving her testimony in Knoxville? We have to put this as a question, because we don't know the exact wording of all she said and have to rely on news reports for our information.
However, there are strong indications that Palin purposely lied during her testimony.
Let's examine closely some of the statements that Sarah Palin made.
STATEMENT NO 1 - as reported by www.knoxnews.com:
She denied using the yahoo-account to conduct gubernatorial business.
"We know there was an Attorney General's opinion one week prior and a lot of other opinions in the state that, of course, it was proper for me to have a private account," she said.
She denied using the yahoo-account to conduct gubernatorial business.
"We know there was an Attorney General's opinion one week prior and a lot of other opinions in the state that, of course, it was proper for me to have a private account," she said.
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EDIT:
I was just now in contact with Jamie Satterfield from www.knoxnews.com. I asked her for a clarification regarding what Sarah Palin said in the testimony.
This is what Jamie answered:
"What she said was the people at the governor's mansion sometimes sent her emails relative to issues regarding the mansion and her children. She denied specifically diverting gubernatorial issues to the account."
"What she said was the people at the governor's mansion sometimes sent her emails relative to issues regarding the mansion and her children. She denied specifically diverting gubernatorial issues to the account."
Sarah, you better call Van Flein right now. ;-)
You might need him.
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This statement, if it is reported correctly, is WRONG. Sarah Palin used the yahoo account in question extensively for gubernatorial business.
To be very precise here: We are talking about the yahoo account "gov.palin@yahoo.com", which was "hacked" by David Kernell. That was the account that Sarah was questioned about during the trial in Knoxville.
Fortunately, MSNBC.COM a few months ago received through a FOIA request 3,000 pages of emails from Palin's former administration in Alaska. Had Sarah "forgotten" about that, when she obviously attempted to paint David Kernell's actions in the worst possible light?
Do these emails prove that she used the account for her gubernational business? YOU BETCHA!
Just go to the Crivella West database which was specifically set up for Palin's emails and give in "gov.palin@yahoo.com" as a searchword. You then will receive the impressive number of 28 hits!
In many of these emails members of Palin's administration were sending messages to Sarah's yahoo-account, sometimes VERY important messages (more below). In other cases, Sarah Palin sent emails from her yahoo account which clearly referred to her gubernational business to her staff.
Sarah Palin sent from her "gov.palin@yahoo.com" account messages such as the following examples:
In addition, the published emails prove that Sarah Palin often received important messages on her yahoo account which dealt with her gubernational business. One of the best examples which can be found in this database is an email by Ivy Frye, who on April 30, 2008 sent a comprehensive list of "legislation awaiting action" to Sarah's yahoo account, and noted for a particular bill: "The governor has until Friday, May 23, to sign and line-item veto or veto the bill".
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There is another interesting fact which I found while researching this subject. Sarah Palin earlier had a very, very similar looking yahoo account, which she also used for her state business: An account with the address "govpalin@yahoo.com". What's the difference? Well, the "." is missing between "gov" and "palin" in this earlier email address!
I realized this fact when I read a report by Alaska Dispatch from January 2010. Attached to this report were a number of emails from Palin's administration which Alaska Dispatch received from an anonymous source, and which are not part of the Crivella West database. Download these emails HERE.
These emails reveal that Palin first used a "govpalin@yahoo.com" account without the "dot".
Examples:
On February 2, 2007, Sarah Palin then sent a message to her most important staff members and told them that she has to "cancel" her "govpalin@yahoo.com" account and that she will open instead a "NEW personal/private/confidential account" with the address "gov.sarah@yahoo.com". No reason for this change was given in the email.
What happened then later to the "gov.sarah@yahoo.com" account? I don't know. But it appears that Sarah was also was unhappy with the "gov.sarah@yahoo.com" account, and in her unshaken faith to "Yahoo Inc" she then opened at some point the (third!) "gov.palin@yahoo.com" account which she used in 2008 - and which David Kernell eventually accessed after looking up the answers to the "security questions" on Wikipedia.
EDIT:
At first, I accidentally added to this post one screenshot of an email which was sent from the "gov.sarah@yahoo.com" address. Although this address is not subject of the trial in Knoxville, I would like to point out that you get 50 hits in the Crivella West database if you search for this email address! Dates from beginning of 2007 up to end of August 2008! So the incredible Sarah juggled with two different yahoo accounts at the same time. Why are we not surprised?
Here is a particularly good example of an email written by "gov.sarah@yahoo.com" - one of the infamous Dairygate emails, a huge scandal of Palin's administration (read the details of Dairygate HERE).
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STATEMENT NO 2 - as reported by www.knoxnews.com and Associated Press:
Davies also sought to use Palin's testimony to show that the answer to the security question that Kernell essentially guessed via Google searches to allegedly illegally access her account - Where did you meet your spouse? - wasn't a secret.
"It wasn't a secret to me," Sarah said, drawing laughter. "I don't know if the rest of the world knew."
Davies also sought to use Palin's testimony to show that the answer to the security question that Kernell essentially guessed via Google searches to allegedly illegally access her account - Where did you meet your spouse? - wasn't a secret.
"It wasn't a secret to me," Sarah said, drawing laughter. "I don't know if the rest of the world knew."
This statement, if reported correctly, is also WRONG. Some "digging" is required, but in the end it's not too difficult to find out that this statement is false.
From the time of her nomination on August 29, 2008, Sarah Palin was immediately the subject of intense scrutiny and curious questions. Sarah Palin obviously "forgot" during her testimony in Knoxville that journalists didn't just ask questions - Sarah Palin herself also gave answers in return!
As we already mentioned in our previous post on this topic, Sarah's answer to this particular security question was "Wasilla High" - where Sarah and Todd first met.
So, what was reported about this fact in the media when David Kernell hacked the account on September 15, 2008?
Examples:
People magazine reported on September 15, 2008:
"Palin met husband Todd when both were seniors at Wasilla High School, northeast of Anchorage, the same year the former Sarah Heath cocaptained the girls' basketball team to a state title."
The LA Times reported on September 7, 2008:
"Todd and Sarah Palin are a classic small-town couple. They met at Wasilla High School shortly after he moved here. As the story goes, the then-Sarah Heath was smitten with the basketball star, as he was with her."
"Palin met husband Todd when both were seniors at Wasilla High School, northeast of Anchorage, the same year the former Sarah Heath cocaptained the girls' basketball team to a state title."
The LA Times reported on September 7, 2008:
"Todd and Sarah Palin are a classic small-town couple. They met at Wasilla High School shortly after he moved here. As the story goes, the then-Sarah Heath was smitten with the basketball star, as he was with her."
But the money quote can be found here:
CNN produced a comprehensive documentary about Sarah Palin called "Sarah Palin Revealed", which aired at September 13, 2008. This documentary was created by Drew Griffin and fortunately the transcript is still available on the CNN website.
Excerpt:
GRIFFIN: By 1987, Sarah returned home in Wasilla, Alaska. To a special friend she met during her senior year of high school.
PALIN: Dad came home from basketball practice and he said -- it was right before school started, and he said, Sarah, there is a new boy in town and he's the best basketball player I've seen in Wasilla, better than -- and he named off some kids. I said, oh, I will have to meet him, the new boy in town.
GRIFFIN: That new boy was Todd Palin, attractive, athletic, charming, a fresh face in Wasilla. Sarah met her match. After Sarah's return from college, the two grew closer.
JOHNSON: Todd, from his fishing boat, had some hand-held radios. And they lived several miles away from each other. They would each sit on the back porch of their homes and talk to each other on the hand-held radios.
GRIFFIN: By 1987, Sarah returned home in Wasilla, Alaska. To a special friend she met during her senior year of high school.
PALIN: Dad came home from basketball practice and he said -- it was right before school started, and he said, Sarah, there is a new boy in town and he's the best basketball player I've seen in Wasilla, better than -- and he named off some kids. I said, oh, I will have to meet him, the new boy in town.
GRIFFIN: That new boy was Todd Palin, attractive, athletic, charming, a fresh face in Wasilla. Sarah met her match. After Sarah's return from college, the two grew closer.
JOHNSON: Todd, from his fishing boat, had some hand-held radios. And they lived several miles away from each other. They would each sit on the back porch of their homes and talk to each other on the hand-held radios.
Therefore it's clear that Sarah Palin proudly told the journalists exactly where she met Todd! This interview with CNN must have taken place between August 31 and September 13, 2008, most likely several days before the documentary went on the air. It was a large documentary, length 41:30 minutes, which would have needed thorough preparation. The "empty shells" of the youtube clips with this documentary can still be found here - the clips itself were removed in the meantime from youtube.
Therefore Sarah's statement in her testimony in Knoxville "I don't know if the rest of the world knew" is false, because it can be proven that Sarah told reporters at the beginning of September 2008 where she first met Todd.
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STATEMENT NO 3:
a) Version reported by "Associated Press":
The posting of family photos and e-mails on the web fueled rumors that Palin and her husband had affairs and that her youngest child, Trig, was not really her son, she said in court.
The posting of family photos and e-mails on the web fueled rumors that Palin and her husband had affairs and that her youngest child, Trig, was not really her son, she said in court.
b) Version reported by "www.knoxnews.com":
The campaign, in the meantime, was forced to divert attention to the fallout - increased media scrutiny of her use of a free, poorly-protected private e-mail account and a slew of rumors about what the account might reveal.
"Todd and me having affairs," she said of the rumors. "The FBI was investigating me. (Youngest son) Trig wasn't really my son."
"Todd and me having affairs," she said of the rumors. "The FBI was investigating me. (Youngest son) Trig wasn't really my son."
She also said it was shocking and invasive seeing her personal pictures and contacts posted on the Internet, and she spent days correcting the media about assumptions made after this happened.
Palin said some of the rumors included that she was having an affair and that her youngest son, Trig, wasn't hers.
So here we have three versions of this statement. However, there can hardly be any doubt that Sarah Palin expressed in her testimony that the publication of these emails caused the media to take a much closer look at the rumors that Trig is not her biological son.
If we take this statement as fact, then no basis for this assertion is apparent.
The truth is that the rumors that Trig is not Sarah's biological son existed LONG before the day the emails from her hacked yahoo account became public.
The rumors go back a long way - this is extensively documented.
Kyle Hopkins, journalist of the "Anchorage Daily News", wrote in an article called "Rumor patrol -- Baby drama" on August 31, 2008:
"OK - the Palin baby speculation is inescapable at this point. The left-leaning Daily Kos posted an item Friday called "Palin's faked "pregnancy"? Covering for teen daughter?"
It's a version of a rumor - long simmering in Alaska -- that Palin's daughter Bristol was pregnant and the governor somehow covered it up by pretending to have the baby (Trig) herself.
Then the also-left leaning Huffington Post slammed all the speculators saying that Democrats have plenty to target Palin on without the baby drama. "Guys, its a loser. Can we not do this?" writes Bart Motes. And then there's this from the Atlantic Web site, pursuing the questions.
So, time for some rumor patrol. It'd be nice to put this to bed.
The answer here should be pretty simple. It happened or it didn't. For months, we have been getting anonymous people telling us they "know" it's true, or people we do know telling us they've heard it fifth-hand. We haven't seen anything resembling proof. We asked the governor's office, and the governor, multiple times about it."
"OK - the Palin baby speculation is inescapable at this point. The left-leaning Daily Kos posted an item Friday called "Palin's faked "pregnancy"? Covering for teen daughter?"
It's a version of a rumor - long simmering in Alaska -- that Palin's daughter Bristol was pregnant and the governor somehow covered it up by pretending to have the baby (Trig) herself.
Then the also-left leaning Huffington Post slammed all the speculators saying that Democrats have plenty to target Palin on without the baby drama. "Guys, its a loser. Can we not do this?" writes Bart Motes. And then there's this from the Atlantic Web site, pursuing the questions.
So, time for some rumor patrol. It'd be nice to put this to bed.
The answer here should be pretty simple. It happened or it didn't. For months, we have been getting anonymous people telling us they "know" it's true, or people we do know telling us they've heard it fifth-hand. We haven't seen anything resembling proof. We asked the governor's office, and the governor, multiple times about it."
So Kyle Hopkins made it abundantly clear that they had heard the rumors already "for months".
In a TV appearance a few days later, on September 2, 2008, his ADN colleague Michael Carey said almost exactly the same and gave a few more details:
It is fascinating to read that in the same article in the ADN, Kyle Hopkins also confirmed that Sarah Palin herself was well informed about the rumor that her daughter Bristol is pregnant - even before she had her pregnancy with Trig announced on March 5, 2008:
McAllister was an Anchorage TV reporter before working for Palin. He said Palin once approached him - before people knew she was pregnant - assuming he'd been hearing rumors.
"She said it's not true about Bristol," McAllister said.
At the time, the rumor would have been that Palin's daughter was pregnant.
McAllister was an Anchorage TV reporter before working for Palin. He said Palin once approached him - before people knew she was pregnant - assuming he'd been hearing rumors.
"She said it's not true about Bristol," McAllister said.
At the time, the rumor would have been that Palin's daughter was pregnant.
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Also, already on September 3, 2008, CBC News aired a broadcast asking serious questions about the parentage of Trig:
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Well, from our own investigations we know that this "rumor" that Sarah Palin has faked her pregnancy is true. We have said it many, many times before, and nobody has ever stopped us. We are still waiting for a message from Thomas Van Flein.
Well, from our own investigations we know that this "rumor" that Sarah Palin has faked her pregnancy is true. We have said it many, many times before, and nobody has ever stopped us. We are still waiting for a message from Thomas Van Flein.
The rumors that Bristol was pregnant already existed in Alaska's capital Juneau in December 2007, as former State Senate President Lyda Green confirmed to me when I had a telephone conversation with her in August 2009.
From another source we know that a member of the leadership of the Republican party in Alaska confirmed as a fact in a private conversation in January 2008 that Bristol was pregnant at that time. Other people with direct access to Bristol's circle of friends also let us know confidentially that Bristol is the mother of Trig.
We know - and Sarah knows we know. How inconvenient! ;-)
Sarah never showed the birth certificate or medical documentation to anyone - not to the McCain campaign, not to the media. And you can bet a fortune that she won't do anything like that in the foreseeable future.
But back to Sarah's statement from the trial: The assertion that the publication of these emails have supported, fueled or even triggered these "rumors" is simply baseless. The rumors existed long before David Kernell hacked Sarah's yahoo account. A connection between these events is not visible.
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Summary:
If we look at Sarah's statements from an objective point of view, provided that the reporting in the news was correct, I strongly believe that many prosecutors would choose "GUILTY". However, this is Sarah Palin we are talking about, the woman who gets away with virtually anything. For how long still? Only God knows!
However, we won't forget Sarah's immortal words:
"I do think there should be consequences for bad behavior."
"I do think there should be consequences for bad behavior."
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