From The Consortium News
By Jason Leopold

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband admits he was obsessed with getting his wife’s estranged brother-in-law fired from the state troopers, so much so that Gov. Palin once told him to “stop talking about it with her,” according to a 25-page sworn affidavit given to a state investigator.

In the affidavit, Todd Palin takes much of the responsibility for pestering state officials about firing Trooper Mike Wooten, apparently to deflect some of the blame for the “Troopergate” affair from his wife, now the Republican vice presidential nominee.

“I had hundreds of conversations with my family, with friends, with colleagues, and with just about everyone I could — including government officials,” Todd Palin wrote. “In fact, I talked about Wooten so much over the years that my wife told me to stop talking about it with her.”

Gov. Palin’s own involvement in pressing for Wooten’s dismissal and her firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan in July after he refused to get rid of Wooten prompted a legislative investigation headed by independent counsel Steve Branchflower.

Todd Palin has resisted a subpoena from Branchflower, but Palin’s lawyers put out the affidavit in advance of Branchflower’s scheduled release of a report on the case on Friday.

The affidavit shows that Todd Palin spent much of Gov. Palin’s nearly two years in office trying to get Wooten kicked off the police force for alleged misconduct. Wooten was involved in a bitter divorce and child-custody battle with Gov. Palin’s sister, Molly McCann.

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