Alaska Politics Blog : Did Palin distort her role in the Exxon Valdez lawsuit?

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Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He's worked for the ADN in Anchorage and Juneau, covered the legislature for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and covered Washington state politics for the Tacoma News Tribune. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins covers rural affairs, general assignments and politics for the ADN. He covered the 2006 campaign for governor, has blogged extensively about Alaska politics, covered Anchorage city government and was a reporter based in the Mat-Su. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and previously wrote for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com and also find him on our rural Alaska blog, The Village.

David Hulen

David Hulen, the ADN's state and local news editor, is responsible for political coverage. He has been an editor and reporter at the ADN for more than 20 years. E-mail David at dhulen@adn.com

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Alaska political corruption

When the FBI raided state legislature offices in Aug. 2006, it publicly launched an investigation that ultimately reached the highest levels of Alaska politics, and continues to this day.

Did Palin distort her role in the Exxon Valdez lawsuit?

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Anchorage Daily News

Posted: November 18, 2009 - 3:25 pm

From Erika Bolstad in Washington D.C. --

The fact checking of former Sarah Palin's new memoir continues, and now, questions have been raised about her role in the lawsuit against Exxon Mobil. People involved in the legal wrangling tell Reuters that they believe the former Alaska governor distorted her importance in the outcome of the two-decade lawsuit against ExxonMobile for the company's role in the 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound.

Reuters: "Palin's claims of victory for the plaintiffs and of playing a role in achieving that victory are highly distorted, said the chief attorney for the approximately 32,000 plaintiffs that sued Exxon over damages from the worst oil-tanker spill in U.S. waters. 'That is the most cockamamie bull****,' said Dave Oesting of Anchorage, lead plaintiff attorney in the private litigants' civil case against Exxon and its successor, Exxon Mobil Corp. 'She didn't have a damn thing to do with it, and she didn’t know what it was about.'"

In her book, Palin writes that she "directed our attorney general to file an amicus brief." Something Palin didn't include in her book: She was in Washington D.C. and made a brief appearance at an event the plaintiffs in the case held the day before oral arguments in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. She was asked by a reporter whether she was confident that Alaskans, who are so dependent on the oil industry for jobs and growth, would support the lawsuit against the country's biggest oil company?

"Absolutely," Palin said at the event. "Deterrence here is the operative word. We do not want this to ever happen again to any other community, state, individual."

Maybe the events of the weekend overtook her. It was, after all, the weekend Palin met Sen. John McCain for the first time. From her book: "Todd and I had spoken with the senator and Cindy, and the four of us really connected over our families, especially when the McCains talked about their sons, Jack, who was set to graduate from the Naval Academy in 2009, and Jimmy, who had been serving in Iraq."