State releases documents related to National Guard scandal

In this email dated Oct. 17, 2013, Maj. Gen. Thomas Katkus seeks input on his response to a reporter's questions. Sean Cockerham, a D.C. based reporter for McClatchy, published a story 10 days later exposing investigations into sexual misconduct in the Alaska National Guard. (Photo by Jennifer Canfield/KTOO)
In this email dated Oct. 17, 2013, Maj. Gen. Thomas Katkus seeks input on his response to a reporter’s questions. Sean Cockerham, a Washington, D.C. based reporter for McClatchy, published a story 10 days later exposing investigations into sexual misconduct in the Alaska National Guard. (Photo by Jennifer Canfield/KTOO)

The State of Alaska has released letters, emails, and other documents related to the Alaska National Guard scandal (175 MB). A “privilege log” listing why some details in the documents were redacted was also released. The state is expected to release more documents over the weekend.

Alaska National Guard emails – 175 MB pdf

Privilege Log – 58 KB pdf 

Copies of all notes, correspondence, memos and emails related to sexual assault in the Alaska National Guard were requested in May by Alaska Public Media. It took until Sept. 26 for Gov. Sean Parnell’s policy director, Randy Ruaro, to deny the request.

Alaska Public Media and Alaska Dispatch News sued the state Oct. 8. Two weeks after filing the lawsuit it appeared that the state was willing to release the documents without litigation. A week later the state had only released few of requested documents.

The media organizations advanced their lawsuit Wednesday to force the release of the documents before the Nov. 4 election. Alaska Superior Court judge Gregory Miller ruled on Thursday that the state was to comply with the records requests by Friday at noon. Reporters received an 596-page document around 1 p.m. today.

This is not the first time reporters have had difficulty requesting documents from the Parnell administration. Last year reporters requested copies of an $80,000 study commissioned by the state to look at the effects of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. The Parnell administration maintained that the report was not a public record because it was protected under the “deliberative process privilege.” Seven months later Parnell released the report after he’d made the decision that Alaska would not expand its Medicaid program.

Alaska Public Radio Network’s Alexandra Gutierrez and Lori Townsend discussed the documents Friday on Alaska News Nightly.

Townsend: First off, how complete are the documents. Are they mostly redacted or is there actual information in them?

Gutierrez: While there are some documents that are entirely blacked out, there’s also plenty in there that isn’t. I’m on about page 400 of 596, so I haven’t seen it all, but there is information in here that hasn’t been available previously. You can see about a dozen separate people from the Guard contacted the governor’s office with specific complaints about leadership in 2011 alone. While the administration has listed victim’s privacy as a reason for not sharing e-mails, it’s clear the bulk of the correspondence with whistleblowers had to do with what was going on at the top.

We also see that the governor’s Chief of Staff, Mike Nizich, is responsive, especially four years ago when complaints started coming in. However, with later complaints, specifically from one person viewed as a disgruntled employee, he – and then Adjutant General Thomas Katkus – who is included on some of these e-mails becomes impatient.

What are some of the documents that stand out to you so far?

Oh, there’s a lot. But for one, there’s an anonymous letter from the “Friends of the Alaska National Guard” from 2012 that is described as an “open letter to the Alaska State Legislature.” It calls out the guard leadership, and specifically names Katkus, who was asked to resign two months ago because of problems in the Guard. It also expresses disappointment with the governor and his staff.

“While it is unfortunate what MG Katkus has done, it is even more regrettable that another senior leader in the State of Alaska has overlooked the misconduct. Governor Sean Parnell and his staff were notified of these issues on multiple occasions by more than a dozen mid-to high ranking officers in the Alaska National Guard. While the governor has listened to the concerns of the leaders in the organization, he has failed to investigate the facts surrounding MG Katkus and the corruption within the Alaska National Guard.”

And again, this was from 2012, two years before the governor called for an investigation.

Is there much communication from the governor?

Very little. When the problems with the guard started getting more news coverage earlier year, there was a staff e-mail he sent that expressed disappointment and indignation that people would suggest that he didn’t do enough and that the integrity of the guard is important to him. But there’s one e-mail from June 8, 2014, that was hard, at least for me, to read:

“If you haven’t already, pls have Gen Katkus give direction that McCugh should have absolutely nothing to do with cases where Guard members are under investigation or subject to review–especially as they relate to two people he is personally connected to. No viewing of files, no conversations, etc.”

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The reason this e-mail was difficult for me was because it’s referring to Deputy Commissioner McHugh Pierre, who was asked to resign a full three months later. While the governor never explained the reason for the dismissal, there were reports that it was because Pierre interfered on behalf of a friend’s disciplinary proceeding. There’s no mention of discipline from the Governor for Pierre, or suspension. It just says stop doing that. So if those allegations are ture, that means Pierre was able to stay in the second most powerful position at the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs until federal investigators concluded that the Guard had problems with favoritism and cronyism like that alleged case.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 7:04 p.m. and 7:27 p.m.

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