"Anyone who knows Sarah knows she ...calls the shots."

"I make no apologies for wanting to protect my family against" the big, bad trooper.

He even blames bloggers. He's says he's been harassed.

He spends 10 pages objecting to the interrogatories before he begins to answer them on page 11.

Did Palin confess? He says he wanted to publicize Trooper Wooten's abuse of the workman's compensation system. Some of Wooten's records appear to have been illegally taken from his file and leaked to the press. He says he made a call to Brad Thompson about Wooten's workman's comp issues and brought it up with others, including Monegan. He gave "a file" of information on Wooten's workman comp issue to Monegan. In a taped converstaion, Bailey says the Governor's office obtained and copied the file.

The workman's comp claim is potentially very damaging to Palins:

The real damage to Palin from Troopergate comes with an injury claim involving trooper Wooten when he hurt his back while in the line of duty. Independent investigator Steve Branchflower testified recently he believes someone in the governor's office tried to block Wooten's workers' compensation injury benefits.

Harbor Adjustment Services, the company hired by the state to process, evaluate and decide on workers' benefit claims, had great financial incentive in bowing to pressure from the governor to deny Wooten's injury claim.

Obviously, the state is Harbor Adjustment Services' largest client. The owner of the company denies the governor's office pressured her to deny Wooten's benefits. Why wouldn't she? Ratting out the governor could cost her the lucrative state contract.

But Branchflower says an employee with Harbor Adjustment Services contradicts the owner and has testified the governor's office did apply pressure to deny Wooten his benefits. Branchflower says the unnamed employee testified, "I don't, you know, care if it's the president who wants the claim denied. I'm not going to deny it unless I have the medical evidence to do that.

As to why it's so damaging:

And there is the governor's aide, Frank Bailey, caught on tape admitting he has information that came from Wooten's workers' comp file.

The very file that includes pictures, taken by none other than Todd Palin, of Wooten riding a snowmachine trying to prove the trooper was not injured.

Here's why this is all so damaging to the governor. It's one thing to try to get a trooper fired because you believe he is a danger to the public. But using your considerable power as governor to block the benefits of a former family member you have a long-running dispute with moves this scandal into a new realm. It becomes about one thing and one thing only, revenge. Not public good, but settling a score.

More evidence someone broke privacy laws and snooped and filched a document from Wooten's personnel file:

Bailey said he obtained information about Wooten’s medical and employment history from Todd Palin.

On Aug. 28, Van Flein deposed Michael Mongale, a state manager with the workers' compensation division. Monagle said there was no truth to rumors that the governor or her office had requested Wooten's workers' comp file. "Absolutely not," said Monagle, who said that the file is "in my office in a locked file cabinet" for safekeeping.

However, John Cyr, executive director of the Public Safety Employees Association, the union that represents Wooten and other state troopers, disclosed a document that appears to contradict Monagle’s sworn deposition.

A routing slip dated Aug. 21 from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development shows Wooten’s workers comp file was pulled and sent to the attention of Mongale. “Wooten, as requested,” the routing slip says, which was made out to the attention of “Mike Mongale.”

“A request came in to return all of Wooten’s [worker’s comp] files to Juneau [the state capital],” according to a note and routing slip faxed to Cyr from the worker’s compensation division. “The person who asked to route the files was told the files were being copied for the governor.”

Under Alaska’s strict privacy laws, Wooten would have had to provide written authorization to allow such access. Cyr said the governor does not have the authority to peek into the private employment and medical files of state employees.

“Even as early as a month ago the governor’s office is still mining through Trooper Wooten’s records,” Cyr said. (emphasis supplied.)

One more tidbit:

According to the transcript of the call between Bailey and Lt. Dial, Bailey also claimed that Wooten lied on his trooper application form by failing to disclose “physical impairments” that he suffered while in the Air Force.

Cyr said there was no truth to Bailey’s allegations. But Cyr said some of the issues Bailey raised during his conversation with Dial in February could only have been known if Wooten’s personnel file was accessed. “It would be illegal for anyone to access Mike [Wooten’s] personnel file unless they had written authorization,” Cyr said.

What has Palin said about her and her husband's access to the personnel files?

In a statement issued in July, Palin heatedly denied illegally accessing her ex-brother-in-law’s personnel files and posted two documents on the governor’s Web site, including a release signed by Wooten in February giving his wife’s divorce attorney access to his “entire employment file.”

The posted documents suggested that Palin obtained information about Wooten’s personnel file through the discovery process related to the divorce/custody battle with her sister. “Any information regarding personnel records came from the trooper himself,” Palin said in her statement.

But the fact that Wooten’s personnel file was released to his ex-wife’s attorney during court proceedings does not mean that Palin’s office then had the right to access the files so it could be used against him, Cyr said.

Also,

“Those files were strictly for use during the divorce,” Cyr said. “And it has a sunset provision,” expiring on May 1.

Plus, Cyr said, conducting an investigation of a state trooper’s workers comp situation is “not the job of the governor’s office and that’s exactly what we have been saying. … Why is the governor’s office involved in this trooper’s worker’s compensation claims?”

Here's the Complaint (pdf) Cyr and the union filed over the improper access by the Governor's office of Wooten's file that lays out the laws and regulations prohibiting disclosure. It quotes the transcript of the Bailey phone call. See Paragraph 5 on page 5. The complaint seeks an ethics investigation into the Governor's conduct.

Maybe Todd Palin will soon be singing another line from the Ronstadt song.... "Woe, woe is me."