By Patrick
We have been very busy this weekend. In two detailed posts which were "packed" with newly discovered material (read them HERE and HERE), we reported about the fact that Sarah Palin and her team did everything in their power to stop Lisa Demer's investigation into the rumours that Sarah Palin might have faked her pregnancy. Palin's staff couldn't present evidence in order to prove that Sarah Palin is the biological mother of Trig, but resorted to insults, obstruction and stonewalling in order to shut Lisa Demer up - a goal which they eventually achieved. It is almost a sensation that the emails include evidence that point directly to Bristol Palin being the real biological mother of Trig.
But there is much more. Again thanks to our reader Older_Wiser, we found a piece of information which could very well be one of the biggest breakthroughs ever in the "Babygate" investigation:
On 22 May 2008, about five weeks after the official birth of Trig, an email by the Alaskan Division of Retirement and Benefits suggests that the Palins did not have a birth certificate for Trig, but needed to request it.
This new piece of evidence is not immediately visible from the newly released emails. It now pays off that we are on the case together with our team and our readers for a very, very long time.
Because in 2010, as many of you will remember, a batch of emails was released to msnbc.com - the "Todd emails", which dealt with the involvement of Todd Palin in Alaskan state affairs ("Palin e-mails reveal a powerful ‘first dude’").
There was one email back then which immediately caught our eye - and was also reported by Andrew Sullivan on the Daily Dish on 28 April, 2011.
Andrew Sullivan quoted a reader:
More than a month after the announced April birth, the state's Benefits division emailed Gov Palin reminding her "we have not received the dependent verification documents for your new child" and "please submit a copy of the child's Birth Certificate to us within 60 days of the date of birth." Her staff was sufficiently concerned to forward this as an urgent email to her husband's personal account. Her husband's email reply does not confirm that he has sent the certificate; he merely responds, "I called, thanks."
For some reason, verification of his birth even for insurance purposes required special handling.
Yes, the verification of Trig's birth indeed required "special handling" - here is the complete email:
Division of Retirement and Benefits on May 22, 2008:
"Please submit a copy of the child's Birth Certificate"
Todd on May 23, 2008:
"I called, thanks"
This was all we knew about this issue - up until now. We would have given a lot to know what exactly Todd discussed on the phone with the benefits section! As the reader which was quoted by Andrew Sullivan also wondered: "Her husband's email reply does not confirm that he has sent the certificate."
Did he send the birth certificate? From a email which was included in the newest batch of the Palin-emails we now know: Most likely not. I am careful and only say "most likely", because in my view the wording of the email still leaves a little bit of room for interpretation. However, somebody with more intimate knowledge of these procedures within the State of Alaska might provide us with a definite conclusion.
The email I am talking about is the response which the Division of Retirement and Benefits sent to Todd apparently immediately after "Todd called them" - 2 1/2 hours after Todd received the email by Janice Mason on May 22, 2008.
This is what the Division of Retirement and Benefits sent to Todd Palin:
The department wrote:
"To obtain ordering information for the Birth Certificate, you may call the State of Alaska, Division of Vital Statistics at (907) 465-3391 or you may visit them on their website at:..."
Is this (final) proof that the Palins actually didn't possess a birth certificate for Trig? Why would this be included in the response if Todd didn't ask for this information? Or is this just "general information" that will be sent to everybody, even if they don't ask for it?
As I said, I am careful. However, one thing is clear: There is more than enough evidence already in the published emails to establish without any doubt, under any journalistic standard, that Sarah Palin and her team were involved in a massive-cover up to protect the inconvenient secrets surrounding the pregnancy with Trig (as we reported this weekend HERE and HERE). The exposure of these secrets would have certainly caused the destruction of Sarah Palin's political career - and this can still happen.
Many might think that Palin's political career is already over, but I beg to differ. It is more than obvious that Palin is "game to run for office", as she said herself, and hopes for a brokered GOP convention, which in her view would mean "an exciting time for all." However, we ourselves are still "game" for exposing Sarah Palin's greatest lie, and we are getting closer and closer.
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UPDATE:
More outrage amongst Palin's staff on December 16, 2008 - Sharon Leighow let her colleagues know:
"The ADN wanted to know for the 96th time whether the governor was Trig’s mom."
Palin's spokesperson Bill McAllister now has a new suggestion - threaten the ADN to "cut them off" in a "high-level complaint":
"I think this warrants a high-level complaint. It has become an insufferable outrage. Mike, I recommend we ask for the
publisher to meet with you. If this continues, I think we have to cut the ADN off and tell the world why."
And:
"They’re not going to staff the session but they’ve got time and resources for this sleaze. We need to call them out for the
predators they are. I’d say they call this off once and for all, or no access at all ever again, and we make sure everyone
knows why. In my 30-year journalism career, I never pursued a story like this."
This is a pattern which is now all-to-familiar for everybody who followed Sarah Palin's career. If you question Sarah Palin, you are "sick" or a "predator."
This is the full email - many thanks to Irishgirl for finding it:
This is most likely exactly what happened: The ADN backed down because Palin's staff threatened to cut them off - but in my opinion not with a direct, public threat, but with a subtle threat behind the scenes. I discussed the obvious reason for this decision in a post at Palingates in September 2009 - the ADN receives huge sums for advertising and printing from the State of Alaska each year (around $ 600,000).
The ADN simply couldn't afford to annoy such an important customer, especially one with such a sensitive "boss" like Sarah Palin, who also unashamedly hinted to the ongoing financial troubles of the ADN in the email exchange with Pat Dougherty.
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UPDATE 2:
The post is just up for a few minutes, but we already received local knowledge!
Our reader and friend Phil Munger, who works as a professor at the University of Anchorage, lives in Wasilla and has his own blog "Progressive Alaska", has given us valuable first-hand information. He is exactly the right the person to ask, because his two children were delivered at Valley Hospital in Palmer, where Trig Palin also was supposedly born.
Phil says in our comments:
"My wife says ours, for kids born at Valley Hospital in Palmer in 1986 and 1989, were automatically mailed to us. Dr. CBJ was in on both those births, as the kids' doctor, subsequent to the delivery.
Looking at some of the paperwork, the costs of recording the birth with the authorities, processing it and getting it to us was included in the package we signed up for with the hospital through my wife's physician."
So it appears that the hospital would have been in charge of all the formalities regarding Trig Palin's birth certificate. But from the above email exchange with the Alaskan department, we can clearly see that it didn't happen like that when it came to Trig Palin, although his official mother was the Governor, the most important person in Alaska. What went wrong, Sarah...?
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UPDATE 3:
At this memorable weekend, the bubble finally burst. Conversations which have been "top secret" for years finally come to light, and the participants will not be happy about that.
From several emails which we have already discussed we have seen how "gung ho" Palin's spokesperson Bill McAllister was about the investigations of the ADN into the Trig pregnancy. Now we made another huge find: An extensive email exchange between ADN-editor Pat Dougherty and Bill McAllister.
In this email-conversation, Pat Dougherty says to Bill McAllister:
"I would appreciate it if this was just between you and me."
But this is not meant to be, which is a very good thing in my opinion. The transparency we have been looking for, finally, here it is, with one big blow.
Pat Dougherty reveals in this email exchange "off-the-record" his true thoughts about the Trig-issue:
If there were such a thing, I think the judgment of your office to go after the Daily News on this Trig stuff would constitute malpractice. At a minimum, it was a big missed opportunity for you. I would have liked nothing better than to drive a stake through the heart of this stupid conspiracy. The proponents have been writing me obnoxious and insulting emails for four or five months. I’m fed up.
But I wash my hands of the matter. Apparently we’re all doomed to listen to this nonsense for months, maybe years to come.
I can understand why you would be upset with the paper now, But someone in your position has to have the long view. Sometimes we’re your best friend, sometimes we’re your worst nightmare. Your job is to get the most of the former and the least of the latter. Right now, from where I sit, you’re taking the Murkowski approach -- minimize the former, don’t affect the latter. That’s not the winning formula.
"I think the judgment of your office to go after the Daily News
on this Trig stuff would constitute malpractice."
Then a sentence which became so true that Pat Dougherty should be appointed the official Alaskan fortune-teller:
"Apparently we’re all doomed to listen to this nonsense for months, maybe years to come."
Yes, Pat, but only because the ADN dropped the matter - a decision which heavily impacted the lives of many people, including ours. I don't want to sound harsh, but I have no sympathy with Pat Dougherty whatsoever. His decision to drop the matter enabled Sarah Palin to start a national political career after the last presidential election, in which she bitterly divided the USA like virtually no other US politician in living history.
It's now Pat Dougherty's turn to correct this mistake.
Full exchange:
Palin-biographer Joe McGinniss: "I think the Politicalgates archives are the best single available resource for anyone wondering why questions are still being asked about Sarah really being Trig’s birth mother." (from August 28, 2011)
Kathleen Baker, editor of Politicalgates, writes in the UK "Guardian" about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy: "Sarah Palin, unreliable narrator"
Read all posts at Politicalgates about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy with Trig - FOR THE COLLECTION, CLICK HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE,HERE AND HERE.
Download the research paper regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy and the role of the media, written by Brad Scharlott, Associate Professor for Journalism at Northern Kentucky University - CLICK HERE.
Brad Scharlott's revised version of the paper has also been published by "Business Insider."
Read the old post at Palingates about the faked pregnancy with the pictures still intact in hardcopy HERE.
Read the old posts at Palingates online HERE (useful also for watching the video clips which were published with the posts).
WATCH: Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy, an open secret in Alaska. Interview with Michael Carey, journalist with the Anchorage Daily News, from September 2, 2008.
In addition, please don't hesitate to watch the excellent video-documentaries about "babygate" which our reader Lidia17 created - HERE, HERE and HERE.We break the "Spiral of Silence" - Read the details about the "biggest hoax in American political history!"
