Palin's husband won't testify

Anchorage - The husband of the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is refusing to comply with a subpoena issued in an abuse-of-power probe of his wife, the family's lawyer said on Thursday.

Todd Palin, father of five children with John McCain's running mate, was among 13 people ordered to testify in the potentially explosive "Troopergate" investigation into the Alaska governor.

In a letter to independent investigator Stephen Branchflower, lawyer Thomas van Flein described the investigation as politically biased and lacking legal authority.

"We maintain our general objections that the legislative council investigation, besides being pursued for partisan purposes, is being conducted in violation of all accepted norms of due process," van Flein wrote.

The probe is being overseen by the head of the Alaska state Senate judiciary committee, who is a Democrat.

The subpoena rejection throws into question whether the probe's final report, due on October 10, could now be completed before Americans go to the polls on November 4.

The investigation is seeking to address whether Palin improperly dismissed the state's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire a state trooper, Mike Wooten, who is her former brother-in-law.

Palin maintains that she fired the commissioner because of policy differences and not because of his refusal to fire the trooper.

Van Flein argued that the subpoena was "unduly burdensome" because of Todd Palin's travel schedule. Palin is campaigning with his wife in US battleground states ahead of the November 4 presidential election.

"Because his spouse is her party's nominee for vice president of the United States, his scheduling obligations over the next two months will make it virtually impossible for him to prepare for and present the testimony called for in the subpoena at the specified location during that time period," van Flein wrote in the letter, reproduced on the Alaska Daily News website.

State lawmakers voted last week to allow Branchflower to issue subpoenas after witnesses refused to be interviewed for the investigation.

Sarah Palin was not subpoenaed, but her husband and several members of her staff were. Palin said initially that she would co-operate with the investigation but has subsequently refused.

- AFP