'October Surprise' Over Palin Investigation?

"Likely Damaging" Report on Governor Scheduled for Release Days Before November Election

ABC NEWS

Is the McCain campaign afraid of an 'October surprise' involving vice-presidential pick Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska?

The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

"It's likely to be damaging to the Governor," said Senator Hollis French, a Democrat, appointed the project manager for a bi-partisan State Senate Legislative Counsel Committee investigation of claims that Palin abused her office to get the Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, fired.

Palin, who has denied any wrongdoing and has said she has nothing to hide, hired private lawyers on Saturday, the day after Sen. McCain announced her as his running mate.

"Until then, the Governor used state lawyers and everything was fine," said Sen. French.

"That's wrong," said a spokesperson for the McCain campaign, Brian Rogers.

"The attorney was hired by the state Department of Law weeks ago, as part of the official duty to defend the governor," said Roger, and "obviously had nothing to do with either the McCain campaign."

A team of McCain campaign operatives arrived in Anchorage over the weekend "to help coordinate" her vice-presidential campaign, according to a McCain campaign official.

In a letter sent on Friday, Gov. Palin's new lawyer, Thomas V. Van Flein, requested a full list of documents, other evidence and witness statements from the Senate's investigation.

Senator French responded "it would be highly unusual for an investigator to share information with one of the targets of the investigation."

French said he still wanted to take testimony from Governor Palin sometime in September about allegations she wanted the public safety commissioner to fire her ex-brother-in-law following a messy divorce to her sister.

"The Governor first issued a blanket denial but now she's had to back down and that's a problem," said French. "She has a credibility problem," he said............