Newly released documents from Joe Miller’s time at the Fairbanks North Star Borough show that in 2008, the Alaska senatorial candidate admitted that he lied about committing ethics violations during his time as a part-time borough attorney.
Several Alaska news organizations had sued for the release of the documents, and on Sunday a court ordered them released. Miller had until today to appeal the order, but did not.
The Anchorage Daily News writes of the incident:
Former Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker, who was Miller’s boss, said last week that Miller used borough computers for political purposes in 2008 when he organized a failed effort to oust state Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich. Whitaker said Miller was disciplined for the violation of the borough’s ethics code but was not fired because he was part of a legal team that was in the middle of a case over how much to tax the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.
In a March 17, 2008 e-mail, Miller admitted to the allegations by Jill Dolan, acting borough attorney, who had sent him an e-mail headed “Notification of Intent to Investigate, and If necessary, Impose Disciplinary Action. Miller wrote in response:
Over the lunch hour this past Wednesday, I got on three computers (not belong to me) in the office. All of them were on and none of them were locked. I accessed my personal website for political purposes (participated in a poll), and then cleared the cache on each computer. I did the same thing on my computer. Jill asked the office what happened. I lied about accessing all of the computers. I then admitted about accessing the computers, but lied about what I was doing. Finally, I admitted what I did.
The documents also show that Miller was suspended for three days without pay, put on six-months probation, and sent for evaluation by the Employee Assistance Program.
Until last week, Miller had denied the allegations, and even refused to answer questions about his past.
The full documents can be accessed here in .pdf form.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
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