Palin book author pays fine for using confidential emails

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A former aide to Sarah Palin who wrote an unflattering memoir of his time in her inner circle has paid a $11,900 fine for using confidential state emails without permission, according to the Alaska Department of Law.

The aide, Frank Bailey, quoted the ex-governor's emails liberally in his 2011 book, "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin," which chronicled how he grew disenchanted with a rising political star he once admired.

Bailey ran afoul of Alaska's administrative ethics law by using emails that concerned the appointment of a state attorney general, according to the settlement signed last week and released by the Department of Law on Tuesday.

Those emails were confidential and should not have been used in the book or shared with Bailey's co-authors, the agreement states.

An attorney for Bailey could not immediately be reached for comment.

The accord grew out of a complaint filed by an Anchorage Republican activist credited with discovering Palin's habit of using a private email account for state business.

The activist, Andree McLeod, has long sought public release of emails exchanged between Palin's private accounts and any official state accounts. News organizations have also tried to obtain them.

McLeod, who accused Bailey of illegally profiting from his access to state information, said she was not satisfied with the fine assessed against the former Palin aide.

"This fine is a drop in the bucket. I think he needs to turn over all the profits he made from the book, and his co-authors, too," she said on Wednesday.

Bailey's co-authors are Jeanne Devon, who operates an Alaska political website called The Mudflats, and writer Ken Morris.

McLeod said she believes that all the emails acquired by Bailey and used as material for his book should now be publicly released.

The administration of Gov. Sean Parnell, Palin's successor, in June released over 24,000 pages of emails, covering the period from when Palin took office in December of 2006 through the end of September 2008. The Parnell administration has not yet released emails from Palin's last 10 months in office.

The remaining emails were to have been released on Monday, according to a directive issued in January by Alaska's then-attorney general, John Burns.

Officials from the Parnell administration were not immediately available to comment on the remaining emails.

Bailey was a top aide in Palin's 2006 gubernatorial campaign and served as Palin's director of boards and commissions while she was governor.

The book details charges that Palin and her husband sought to punish a state trooper who was once married to her sister. It also looks at charges that she knowingly broke Alaska state campaign-finance law during her 2006 gubernatorial bid.

Palin has denied attempting to use her office to punish the trooper or breaking the campaign-finance laws.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Paul Thomasch)