FORTY YEARS OF BYRON MALLOTT’S WAYS
It all comes down to corruption — or the perception of corruption.
A lieutenant governor — in charge of elections and much of the day-to-day operations of the state — and a law enforcement officer who has a reporting relationship to the Department of Public Safety, were having an intimate relationship. That relationship put each of them in compromising positions.
Then, a teenage girl was advanced on by the lieutenant governor, a man about 58 years her senior.
In Alaska, the age of consent is 16. A person who has sexual intercourse with a person who is under 16 who is at least three years younger than the offender is committing rape. The age of consent doesn’t apply if the person is in a position of authority.
But in this case, the young woman in question is thought to be either 16 or 17. Alaskans don’t know exactly what happened. It may have been just words or suggestions. Or it may have been grooming her for something more.
What Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott did earlier this month was so bad, it cannot be talked about.
It cannot be investigated.
The press evidently just won’t go there.
[Governor’s Office asks press to take one for the team]
You’ll just have to trust Gov. Bill Walker about what happened. Or rather, you’ll have to trust his functionaries, because he’s not talking. His “most transparent administration” has gone dark and he’s left the state for a vacation in Hawaii.
The names of the victim or victims can remain private, but Alaskans deserve to know what it was that Mallott did.
The Walker-Mallott ticket was Alaska’s House of Cards, formed in backroom deals in 2014, and collapsing when Mallott compromised his own leadership by making himself vulnerable to blackmail.
The consenting law enforcement officer also compromised her professional standing.
These two individuals had each other at an ethical standoff.
But this isn’t the first time for Mallott.
The entire Democrat political class has ignored Mallott’s extracurricular activities for years. The press has been ignoring it.
Must Read Alaska has mentioned Mallott’s volatile and tempestuous behavior in passing, but finding an actual victim proves elusive. Besides, what consenting adults do in their private lives is not our business.
But the stories of Mallott’s modus operandi with young ladies is well known in Native circles. A lot of it has been relayed between women in Alaska over the years — quid pro quo arrangements that result in jobs — all kinds of jobs. Jobs for him. Jobs for her. Everyone gets a job.
Alaska Federation of Natives leaders have known about it for decades and have allowed Mallott and other elders to keep using their power to get treats from young women.
In the recent case, it appears that Mallott had a relationship with a grown woman in her 40s, who then got promoted into a high position of responsibility in law enforcement. She also now serves on two important commissions, appointments that came from the Governor’s Office.
She has power over people through her badge.
When Mallott made some type of overture to the woman’s teenage daughter, it came crashing down on him. The woman decided to burn him down. She took the entire Walker-Mallott administration down.
Yet, it cannot be talked about. It cannot be investigated. The media has moved on. It was a one-day story.
In 2016, things were different. Rep. Cathy Munoz of Juneau simply wrote a letter asking for judicial review of a sentence, and the press hounded her day after day, until she lost her re-election to Justin Parish. The news reporters were relentless even though she had done nothing wrong. The leftists wrote letters to the editor saying that she was soft on crime, helping a sex offender.
Juneauites remember how that ended. Parish lasted one term, and then it was impossible for him to run for re-election due to his unwelcome advances, reported by a woman in Juneau.
WHEN DID WALKER KNOW?
Gov. Walker gave over the running of much of the day-to-day operations of government over to Mallott, while Walker worked on the gasline project, which is his lifelong dream.
Walker was warned about this pattern of behavior in 2014. Back then, he was just trying to win. Mallott was his ticket to getting to be governor. The two formed a partnership to bump off Gov. Sean Parnell.
Walker was also told about this specific inappropriate relationship in 2016 through his then-chief of staff Jim Whitaker, who was told by a “concerned someone” in the Administration.
Byron Mallott’s rapid departure and the Administration’s silence is starting to look like a cover-up. We still don’t know what happened. We just know that the governor is saying what Mallott did was not illegal.
The media has stopped its inquiries as if nothing ever happened and there’s no word coming from the administration about further investigation or interviews.
Here’s what we think we know:
There was a lieutenant governor, a law enforcement officer, and her teenage daughter. Because of the teenager and a press that is unwilling to achieve the balance, the actual events may never be known to history.
