The State of Alaska must still release another batch of emails from Sarah Palin’s time as governor. But don’t expect them anytime soon.
Somewhat lost in the hubbub over Friday’s release of thousands of pages of emails, was the fact that it only covered the first 21 months of the Palin administration. Several news outlets have requested records from the rest of her time in office. But Assistant Attorney General Dave Jones says the governor’s office has yet to send them to the Department of Law for review.
State Administrative Services Director Linda Perez also isn’t sure how long it will take to release the next batch of emails, which will cover October 1, 2008 through Palin’s resignation on July 26, 2009. Perez says news outlets began requesting the additional records in the last six months.
The state came under fire for taking two and half years to process Friday’s release. But Jones says it takes time to review the emails for privileged information, which he says cannot be done electronically.
The next email release will actually be the fourth document dump related to Palin’s time as governor. Last year the state released about 3,000 pages of Todd Palin’s emails, showing the hands-on role the former “First Dude” played in state government. Some emails related to the so-called Troopergate investigation have also been released.
Several news organizations have posted all the Palin emails released to date onto the web.
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Casey Kelly is a reporter at KTOO in Juneau.
