Federal embezzlement charges may explain Sarah Palin resigning as Alaska governor

July 4, 11:38 AMPolitical Issues ExaminerJudah Freed

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A pending embezzlement indictment may explain why Sarah Palin on July 3 suddenly announced her mid-term resignation as the governor of Alaska, leaving her future plans unclear.

The former U.S. vice presidential nominee, who's attracted an ardent following among conservative Republicans, may not be resigning because she's contemplating a run for the White House, as many media pundits are speculating.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announces that she is stepping
down from her position as Governor in Wasilla, Alaska,
on Friday July 3, 2009. The former GOP vice presidential
candidate made the surprise announcement, saying she
would step down July 26 but didn't announce her plans.
(AP Photo/Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, Robert DeBerry)

She may not be resigning because she's sick of all the ethics attacks and verbal abuse from the political left, and she may not be resigning due to revelations in a recent Vanity Fair article about her poor relationship with the 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain.

More to the point, she may not be resigning for the reason declared in her press conference Friday that because she's decided not to run for governor again in 2010, she's quitting her job to avoid being a "lame duck" governor. That feels to me like a lame excuse for Palin suddenly bailing on her duty to the citizens of Alaska.

Instead, I'm considering the assertion of investigative reporter Brad Friedman in The Brad Blog, citing story confirmation from "multiple sources" in Alaska, that Palin will resign July 26 because of pending criminal charges for embezzlement during her term as mayor.

The charges, Friedman claims, 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 supplied and installed by the same construction contractor, Spenard Building Supplies (SBS).

As supporting evidence, Friedman excerpted an October 8, 2008, Village Voice story that the same contractors building the $12.5 million sports center and ice rink in Wasilla (SBS) also assisted Todd Palin with building his family's two-story, 3,450-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-bath, wood house in the town. Todd Plain described these contractors as his "buddies."

If Palin or her husband, Todd, is indicted for misappropriating construction materials meant for the town sports complex to build the Palin's home, the ensuing embezzlement trial would make the many past accusations of local and state ethics violations pale by comparison. If convicted, Palin or her husband could be looking at prison time.

Friedman said his sources in Alaska told him that federal investigators had asked them to remain quiet about the looming indictment, so none of his sources have gone on the record with their names. Further, Friedman said he was unable to gain confirmation from any federal sources.

Consequently, without named sources, the reliability of Friedman's report remains in doubt. In fact, an FBI spokesperson has denied that Palin is being investigated by that federal agency.

Logically, however, the FBI denial does not rule out an investigation by some other federal agency, especially the IRS, or maybe a state agency. If the IRS is involved, the alleged crime may be filing a fradulent tax return by failing to report embezzled construction supplies and services as income.

Perhaps Friedman's Alaska sources mislead him, yet I must concede that he's repeatedly proven his credibility in the past by breaking many other far-fetched stories that later proved to be true, such as the 2000 and 2004 voting "irregularities" in Florida and Ohio.

Naturally, I'm waiting for all the facts to emerge, but I have to admit that Friedman's reason for Palin's sudden resignation makes a lot more sense to me than anything else I've heard so far.

Gov. Palin survived "Troopergate" and other state ethics scandals, so I can't imaging this "pit bull with lipstick" would resign because she's tired of the political in-fighting that she's been winning.

And given that Palin's gubernatorial term ends in 2010, I cannot see any logic in ruining her chances for a credible presidential race in 2012 by prematurely resigning as Alaska governor. Her seasoned political advisors surely must have warned her that a "quitter" stands scant chance of ever being elected to the White House.

And when I listen to Palin's disjointed performance at the hastily called news conference near her Wasilla home yesterday (see below), her inexplicable sports analogy of passing the basketball for the good of team Alaska only makes sense if she's about to face some challenge that would prevent her from performing her duties as governor, such as a criminal indictment.

Finally, when I observe that the press conference yesterday sounded more like a Tina Fey Saturday Night Live comedy sketch than a serious press event from a serious potential presidential candidate, I'm increasingly led to the conclusion that Brad Friedman might have nailed the inside story, again.  

Did Sarah Palin resign as the governor of Alaska because she's about to be charged with a federal or state crime? There may be a conservative backlash against anyone asking the question or even reporting the allegation, yet that's predictable. Rather than attacking the messenger, let's see what the weeks and months ahead reveal.

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• Gov. Sarah Palin resigns: the latest episode in her ongoing soap opera
• The Top Ten reasons Sarah Palin is resigning
• Did Sarah Palin just abandon a sinking ship?
• Palin resigns as governor, leaves plans secret
• Palin won't seek re-election in 2010, stepping down within weeks
• Palin to resign as Alaska Governor July 26

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