Alaska Investigates Former Palin Aide for Keeping Her Emails

The tangled case involves a Palin critic turning on a disillusioned former aide

Frank Bailey, a former aide to Sarah Palin and author of the forthcoming Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin, is being investigated by the state of Alaska for illegally using state-owned email for personal gain. What's strange about the investigation is that it was sparked by one of Palin's biggest critics Andree McLeod, who Vanity Fair called "Sarah Palin's Worst Nightmare."

Bailey's manuscript leaked to the Anchorage Daily News and other outlets in February and includes many allegations of how Palin avoided ethics and election rules while she served as governor.

Back in 2008, McLeod (along with many others) filed a Freedom of Information Act request for emails that Palin and her aides had sent on Yahoo accounts which skirted Alaska's Executive Branch Ethics Laws. According to McLeod, Bailey illegally obtained some of Palin's emails when cleaning up the mess and used them to source his evidently very condemning, "bombshell tell-all" memoir about working with Palin. McLeod filed her initial complaint about Bailey last year, and Alaska Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton Walsh--who's stood up for Palin in the past--recently agreed to investigate the charge.

Following the tangled threads of allegiance here is difficult. Why would one of Palin's most vehement critics want to compromise the publication of a book that may bury the former vice presidential candidates political career for good? Well, according to Bailey, it's because McLeod maintains a vendetta against him for getting a job in the Palin administration when she did not. Or maybe she just really believes in the fine print of ethics laws.