By DAVID IGNELL
Yesterday’s historic summit meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson between President Donald Trump and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin had much of the world watching our state.
In a Bloomberg podcast before the event, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said there “are going to be a lot of reporters here, a lot of others with their eyes on this great state, a huge deal for Alaska.”
Hopefully some of those eyes belong to FBI Director Kash Patel and US Attorney Pam Bondi. A source recently informed me of talk on social media that FBI agents are looking for rental housing in Anchorage.
While at JBER to cover the historic summit, Fox News anchor Sean Hannity did a video interview with Patel. Early on, Patel said he was “blown away” when “corrupt bureaucrats weaponize and destroy law enforcement like predecessors of mine did with the FBI. Trump is for transparency and accountability.”
Last weekend in Washington DC, one of Bondi’s DOJ employees shouted obscenities in the face of a law enforcement officer and then threw a Subway sandwich at his chest. The DOJ employee was promptly fired and charged with felony assault.
On Thursday, Bondi posted on X, “If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you. This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ.”
These statements by Bondi and Patel in the past couple of days bring to mind the very troubling case brought by Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor against former Ketchikan Police Chief Jeff Walls. Walls’ decorated law enforcement career was destroyed by Taylor shortly after Ketchikan increased their fentanyl seizures by over 500% in the first year of Walls’ leadership.
As readers may recall from my first article about Walls, in November of 2022 the Special Agent in Charge of the Anchorage FBI recognized the Ketchikan Police Department for having the most drug seizures of any department in Alaska. However, the next month one of Taylor’s special prosecutors misled a Ketchikan grand jury into indicting Walls for felony assault.
While off-duty eating dinner with his wife Sharon at a local restaurant outside of city limits, Walls was assaulted twice by a large, drunk aggressive man who used his full body weight to slam up against Walls from behind. The second assault injured Sharon seated next to him.
After recovering from the second blow, Walls subdued the assailant. Yet instead of charging the assailant with a felony, Taylor dropped the misdemeanor charges against him and instead went after Walls. Not just once but three times. Each of those three times Taylor’s prosecutors misled different grand juries in Ketchikan and Juneau on facts and law.
The judge finally dismissed the indictment with prejudice, writing she had no confidence the State would get it right a fourth time. These were unusually strong, nearly unprecedented words, coming from the pen of an Alaskan judge.
As my second article last month on the Walls case stated, Taylor withheld from the 2nd and 3rd grand juries the report of Lieutenant Jeff Hall, a retired State Trooper who was previously the major crimes investigator for “A” Detachment in Ketchikan. Hall’s report concluded, “this case never should have been brought forward”, “the chief showed great restraint”, and “[the chief] was ill-served by the trooper and the prosecutor”
Not mentioned in my previous articles was the report of a current law enforcement officer who like Hall, was also highly critical of the State Troopers’ investigation of Walls’ case. Among other things, the officer stated that the actions of one of the Troopers constituted Tampering with a Witness in the 1st Degree, a class C felony. The officer also reported that one of the Troopers altered the statement of a witness in his report. The officer concluded that the Troopers’ investigation was both illegal and unethical.
Taylor not only dropped charges against Walls assailant, but he didn’t pursue felony charges against an Alaska State Trooper in the process of concocting charges against Walls.
Shouldn’t that make Taylor susceptible to at least a federal investigation, and possibly charges?
Facts in the Walls’ case even suggest the attack on him and his wife may have been intentional, designed to provoke a hostile reaction from the chief for the purpose of getting him out of Ketchikan. Evidence connects a State Trooper making over $200,000 a year to this objective. Obviously, this aspect of the Troopers’ “illegal and unethical” investigation was never explored.
The bottom line is this: the conduct of Taylor, his special prosecutors and State Troopers in the Walls case is far more egregious and a risk to national security than the actions of the DOJ employee in DC assaulting an officer with a Subway sandwich.
The only recourse for the assault against Walls and his wife is for Bondi to prosecute.
Ms. Bondi and Mr. Patel, welcome to the Deep State in Alaska. Our judiciary and criminal justice system have been off the rails for a long, long time. Prosecutors and judges routinely mock basic ethical standards. State Troopers change words and statements to make probable cause statements fit criminal charges.
High-ranking Alaska officials doing this to a decorated police chief, proven to have made a serious dent in the infestation of deadly fentanyl on Ketchikan streets, should make this a high priority concern to you.
Furthermore, certain evidence points to Ketchikan being a relatively low risk and efficient US entry point for fentanyl coming from China on its way south into the continental United States. Is that why Chief Walls and his effective initiatives to seize fentanyl were such a threat? Did they threaten not only the supply of an Alaskan region but a major pipeline into the rest of the United States?
When it comes to questionable conduct by State of Alaska officials, the Walls’ case is certainly no outlier. Patel’s team won’t have to dig far into our own Deep State to find an alarming pattern of constitutional rights being denied to Alaskan citizens going back decades. Much of the work has already been done.
In the Thomas Jack Jr., case they’ll find an Alaska Native man incarcerated for 15 years after another shoddy investigation by State Troopers directed by prosecutors, important exculpatory evidence withheld from the grand jury, and twice being denied a jury of his peers.
They’ll find the State forced a second trial despite knowing Jack did not have competent counsel. They’ll find for the last 10 years the State’s Office of Public Advocacy has provided Jack with attorneys unwilling to prosecute what should be a “slam dunk” post-conviction relief motion on the incompetency issue, and another attorney with a serious conflict of interest.
In the Tommy Hull case, they’ll find a construction worker who was incarcerated for over six years without his case being brought to trial. They’ll find Hull’s assets were frozen through a related divorce proceeding that prevented him from making bail. They’ll find that Hull was repeatedly denied his choice of counsel. They’ll find Hull’s petitions to dismiss the charges based on the lack of a speedy trial were not only denied by state and federal judges in Alaska, but they were even opposed by the attorneys the judge tried to force on him. They’ll find that last week Hull was under duress and pressured by the State to take a plea deal that gave him immediate freedom in exchange for a guilty plea. There’s likely more, but I just found out about Hull’s case two weeks ago.
In the case of AK Mom, they’ll find a registered nurse who the State retaliated against by using false allegations of medical abuse to take away her five children. Over the next three years the State subjected this family to a horrible nightmare, splitting the children up, taking them out of their schools and away from their friends, taking them off prescribed medications, and moving them around the state while ignoring provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Towards the end of the children’s captivity, Taylor’s attorneys fought to keep one of the youngest children in a homeless shelter known to be targeted by traffickers.
These cases just scrape the surface of the abuse and denial of due process that American citizens and families have experienced at the hands of State of Alaska officials.
Cases like Mary Fulp’s must also be investigated. Fulp, an educator who in 2022 was Alaska’s Principal of the Year was taken into custody by Troopers, stripped of her personal belongings, forcibly restrained, and administered medications against her will, simply for posting a Facebook video where she said Jesus is King and that she stood with the Martin Luther King civil rights movement. Constitutionally protected speech in Alaska is in jeopardy.
Public testimony by former State Lieutenant Governor Loren Lehman has detailed how a Democrat legislator once bragged to him that the Alaska judiciary will always be controlled by Democrats. Perhaps the Democrat’s control of our judiciary is why constitutional rights don’t matter in these cases and why our judges act more like politicians.
Local judicial activism to force substandard education on our children, break up families, deny due process rights, weaponize false sexual assault and domestic violence allegations, subvert grand jury rights, overlook essential ethical principles, and to allow legislators to rob our Permanent Fund distributions, all serve to make Alaska weak instead of strong.
In 2022 when we had a chance to change the judicial system by voting “yes” for a constitutional convention, big money came in from Washington DC groups like the National Education Association and the Sixteen Thirty Fund to support the “no” vote.
American citizens in Alaska need President Trump’s help to escape the State’s tyranny. Alaska is essentially a banana republic for the Deep State.
The State’s objectives and historical pattern of denying constitutional rights, breaking up healthy families, and chasing away police chiefs successful in the war against deadly drugs seems designed to create not only a perpetual state of dependency, but a growing one.
In addition, and as President Trump knows very well, Alaska has vast reserves of valuable natural resources. Alaska can play a huge role in effectuating President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again. But our enemies know that, and they also know how corrupted our state is. President Trump’s goal can be significantly compromised by Alaska’s Deep State.
If State officials are known to unethically and unconstitutionally sell out the best interests of Alaska citizens for a few extra dollars, what will they do when given the opportunity to rake in billions off our natural resources like oil and gas? Who will they contract with, how closely will the identity of their partners be vetted, and why should we believe any code of ethics will actually be enforced?
Towards the end of Hannity’s interview, Patel said, “When you start connecting the dots….as bad as the crime is, the corruption cover-up, from senior government officials who are sworn to uphold their duties and accountability for the American public, they are the ones that violated that trust the most internally and need to be held accountable.
Ms. Bondi and Mr. Patel, a ton of the same corrupt dots connect in Alaska and we need you to hold senior government officials accountable. The Walls case alone highlights the unreliability of Alaska’s Attorney General’s Office and its Department of Public Safety. Anything coming out of either can’t be trusted.
Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.
David Ignell was born and raised in Juneau where he currently resides. He formerly practiced law in California state and federal courts and was a volunteer analyst for the California Innocence Project. He is currently a forensic journalist and recently wrote a book on the Alaska Grand Jury.
Once again, my hat is off to Mr. Ignell for detailing a small sample of the corruption that permeates our state government. I find it laughable that our state attorney general is allegedly gearing up for a run at the governor’s office. Is our current governor involved in the corruption? I can’t answer that but based on his reluctance to do the right thing in the past, it is possible. As every new day passes, I become more convinced that our “elected” officials are actually selected and we are given the illusion that the majority of the people elected them.
Read DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION Oversight and Review Unit
Review of the Effectiveness and Security of the Division of Elections in Administering Alaska’s Election. July 13, 2020. Almost all of this report was redacted until June 2025 the DOL finally released all of the report un-redacted. Why did it take the DOL so long to release the above-mentioned report to the public?
Senator Shower introduced SB 39 in 2022 “An Act relating to elections and voter registration; designating as a class C felony the intentional opening or tampering with certain election materials; and providing for an effective date.” ‘https://www.akleg.gov/PDF/32/Bills/SB0039C.PDF.
Wow!
Good article! I agree, Bondi and Patel would be welcome and very much needed to look into the Dunleavy Administration and some of his choices of hiring as well as some senior legislature individuals. Fraud, waste and abuses is the name of the game for this administration. The reporters and visitors are only a minor part of the problem with this administration in Alaska.
Taylor running for governor would be an ongoing travesty for Alaska. More of the same corruption
State of Alaska starts with Dunleavy. Focus on him and then work your way down Bondi.
Former Lt Gov Loren Leman and his family are my friends. Definitely not one of the Lehman brothers. Kindly check spelling. My spelling and grammar also miss the mark sometimes.
An otherwise very interesting and detailed article. Lt Gov Leman is absolutely correct about the judiciary. May I add the conflicts of interest in the demise of the oldest charter school in Anchorage and the largest school in Anchorage when Treg and Jodi were inappropriately involved in directing the former principal of that school to unilaterally allow parents to violate the state constitution by using public education funds for the direct benefit of private and religious education institutions? He couldn’t even fulfill his job by giving an official opinion on that matter and had to punt to his Deputy AG.
Let him run. If voters can get info from this article and have any sense at all, he doesn’t stand a chance.
Alaska and corruption are brothers, come to Alaska and get your way, do what you want with impunity, this is the last frontier and its clearly being run like a frontier town and HAS BEEN, corruption abounds! I welcome federal judicial oversight 110%.
you state “evidence connects a State Trooper making over $200,000 a year to this objective.”
What “evidence” do you have?
you see David, you’re a good writer, and I don’t doubt that there are corrupt officials in this State, but you don’t do a good job of making a case beyond a sensational story filled with your perceptions.
The troopers business is on the State’s website and the numbers are through D&B. I found them by going back to look at previous articles.
Oh, and David, there’s your repeated inclusion of the Jack case in your arguments that douses any spark of credibility you might have. Again, you make some sensational statements in those two paragraphs, but you don’t bring forth any evidence. I thought you were an attorney once? Did you forget how to present a case?
There are 2 sides to every story. If the author of this article is an upstanding citizen he would investigate further. Interview AG Treg and report accordingly.
Transparency — I’ve tried numerous times over the last 6 years to meet or talk with Governor Mike Dunleavy, Attorney General Treg Taylor, Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore, and Criminal Division Director Angie Kemp. Other notables you can add to that list include former Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg, former Supreme Court Judge Joel Bolger, current Assistant US Attorney Jack Schmidt, and current OPA Director James Stinson.
The response? Crickets.
The closest I got was with Skidmore three and a half years ago. When we were surrounded by people in the Capitol Building, he agreed to meet with me before heading back to Juneau. In advance of our meeting I emailed him the affidavit of Bob Barton, a former Army combat pilot who served our country for 25 years and a recipient of the Air Service award. Skidmore later replied by email that he wouldn’t meet with me, saying my claims weren’t credible. He didn’t address Barton’s claims.
In the fall of 2022 I made a number of written attempts to engage Taylor regarding the grand jury investigation I had requested into the wrongful conviction of Mr. Jack. In October I copied him on emails sent to Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills, specifically bringing his attention to his own ethical duties under the Rules of Professional Responsibility.
When Taylor didn’t respond, I sent him two letters dated October 21 and 28 specifically addressing his ethical responsibilities under Rule 3.8. Taylor continued to be non-responsive.
On December 1 I sent a 6 page letter to Governor Dunleavy, laying out my concerns of multiple instances of ethical violations on the part of Taylor. This letter stated my belief that it was the Governor’s responsibility to request the resignation of Taylor as the Attorney General. When the Governor did not respond, I wrote an article on the subject, published by the Juneau Empire on December 29.
I’m not the only journalist that has been unsuccessful in meeting with Taylor. After my first article in MRAK about Chief Walls, Bob Bird invited me on his show as a guest to discuss the matter. Afterwards BIrd tried to get Taylor on his show to discuss the matter, to obtain Taylor’s viewpoint, but my understanding is that Taylor declined.
I’ve heard Taylor is participating in a Kenai town hall tomorrow night with Mayor Micciche. If its a true and not staged town hall, Taylor will openly respond to the question and ensuing discussion with the public of how the grand jury can effectively investigate and report on his role in the Walls affair, without his office having control over the selection of a truly independent prosecutor, and the court’s influence on the selection of the grand jurors, and the releasing of the report.
I’ll end this comment by bringing up again what Bob Barton said in his affidavit:
“I recall that when Assistant District Attorney Angie Kemp figured out who I was, she stopped asking me questions and that didn’t sit well with me. In my view, prosecutors are obligated to follow the truth regardless of the result it leads to.”
Barton’s statement identifies the long-standing fundamental problem with the Attorney General’s Office in Alaska — they don’t follow the truth and have no time for people who do.
The solution was in SB 14 and again in SB 31 Review and Selection of Judges. ‘https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Bill/Detail/33?Root=SB%20%2031
Chief Justice Bolger, Justices Winfree, Maassen and Carney identify problems/concerns/issues that many Alaskans have and are facing in their letter to Fellow Alaskans. https://courts.alaska.gov/media/docs/sc-2020-stmt.pdf
No person, not even a tribal government can violate the U.S. Constitution and an Alaskan’s constitutional rights. Alaska Judges must faithfully follow the laws. Canon 3(2)(b)
An Alaska SOLUTION would be for Governor Dunleavy to remedy the wrongs. AG Taylor is the legal advisor and he should defend the U.S. and Alaska Constitutions and our constitutional rights to due process just as former AG Geraghty did for an Alaskan man. ‘https://law.alaska.gov/press/releases/2013/091513-GeraghtyEditorial.html
Alaska Constitution Article III Section 1. The executive power of the State is vested in the governor. Section 16. The governor shall be responsible for the faithful execution of the laws…. AS 44.23.020 (a) The attorney general is the legal advisor of the governor and other state officers. (b) The attorney shall (1) defend the Constitution of the State of Alaska and the Constitution of the United States of America….
AG Taylor will be in Kenai Monday, August 18th for a town hall meeting. Mark your calendars and attend.
Justices wrote in their letter last paragraph, “We commit ourselves and the court system to seek always to ensure equal justice under the law. “As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently stated long ago, “Injustice anywhere is a treat to justice everywhere.”” ‘https://courts.alaska.gov/media/docs/sc-2020-stmt.pdf
If Governor Dunleavy cannot remedy the wrongs, then absolutely President Trump and U.S. AG Bondi please intervene to ensure that all legal citizens of the U.S.A. living in Alaska have protections of our constitutional rights to due process and equal protection of the laws, etc.
Mr. Ignell, thank you for another excellent article.
The state needs a total audit from the bottom up. The state is supporting and corrupting our small communities. Ensuring attention being directed from the top shelf corruption. Both State and Federal funds are being squandered and misused with no accountability. Thus small communities have created local corrupt court decisions impacting individuals civil rights process and allowing certain individuals to abuse, mistreat and deny equality rampant. Magistrates misusing their position leaking confidential information and crucifying individuals for trying to exercise their rights for protection from abuse, fear and freedom. Child Protection Services has been breaking families apart for decades here. The State and legislature supports laws, procedures and turning a blind eye for personal gain. Allowing dangerous drug use to be minimize in the court systems. Destroying family structure with families repeating drug usage and all the negative activities they bring. Allowing known drug users and dealers to live off State welfare systems without accountability only breeds more corruption and misuse of any State and Federal monies they have. Our State needs an overhaul, audit and new direction of accountability and honesty. Improve our State to benifet all not just the corrupt. Anyone standing up trying to make positive changes are crucified and harassed until their reputation, life and peace of life is destroyed. Which is a form of personal murder without death.
“ The state needs a total audit from the bottom up.” Seems like you know a lot of inside information and would be a valuable consultant on a criminal investigation.
For those of us who also have investigated the corruption within the State of Alaska (SOA) and the AK Courts of Rot, this article is spot on.
David, you do not need to prove yourself or provide evidence here. Instead, send this article in the form of a letter directly to the FBI and the DOJ. That is what we advise everyone who has evidence of public Alaskan corruption.
We know that the AG and Dunleavy are aware that the FBI and DOJ are already looking into public corruption in Alaska. The FBI has ‘surged’ agents here. This is why the AG is suddenly showing a newfound interest in Grand Jury Investigations. They love discovery and evidence, so they can play their games of injustice, mitigate, and continue with the cover-up of their corruption. It is also why the AKDOL suddenly released the long-awaited Election report three days before Patel stated publicly that the FBI is targeting election fraud at the state level. Dunleavy got a ‘heads-up’ and needed to update his ‘skin’ to appear like he is one of the good politicians. He isn’t…and the Feds know it.
Give the SOA nothing. Give EVERYTHING to the FBI. The FBI has both the resources and time to really dig into the corruption in this state. Like many have already said, the SOA is target-rich for corruption, across the board.
Very confusing piece. Ignell starts off highlighting corruption within Alaska. Then suggests it is the fault of the Democrats. Perhaps Ignell is unaware of Republican dominance in Alaska for the last 40 years. Then he suggests Trumpians Bondi and Patel should root out the imaginary (Democratic) deep state. It is these very operators who have weaponized the US Justice Dept.. (despite Patels lies otherwise). It is the Republican operators in Washington and Juneau who have suggested “we can ignore the constitution”. Change will only come when we throw out the criminals, in Washington and Juneau, and elect politicians who respect the constitution of the US and Alaska.
Ahhhh. The last couple of commenters are nothing more than shills. Mr. Ignell HAS done his homework. If you shills did even a tenth of the work done investigating the State corruption, you wouldn’t be using the time tested method of attacking the messenger.
Anyone who has paid even the least amount of attention to the events occurring in our State govt could not possibly attempt to defend the States actions.
Give it up shills. The rest of the citizenry knows our State govt needs investigation by the Feds.
Save us Feds! Make Judge Matthews release the GJ Report on systemic corruption in our judicial system. What are they so afraid of?
As I’ve stated before, going off of my personal experience with Treg Taylor and the Department of Law, they are not to be trusted. Corruption is ongoing in this State, and Treg Taylor has zero problem ignoring or covering it up.
Dave Ignell’s investigative journalism is critically needed at this point in Alaska history. Youtube has literally thousands of documentary videos of nationwide police and judiciary corruption. The videos reveal widespread lack of police knowledge and respect for due process and constitutional rightsl. It is blindingly obvious qualified immunity and internal investigations must be eliminated.
A search for “1st Amendment Audit” or “police corruption” will open a floodgate of these documentaries. Links showing corruption to be worse in Connecticut than Alaska are as follows.
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_61tu_DPaQ
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb_9J4Rs18E
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmT8SWuIjkE
I do not know you Mr Ingell but you sure make many statements that seem to be your opinion instead of fact. Did you happen to read AG Taylor’s response to your accusations? Was everything he said a lie? Did the law officers involved lie also?
Seems to me the only career you are trying to ruin is AG Taylor’s with unproven accusations.