The state of Alaska released copies of some of former Governor Sarah Palin's emails, documents that could shed light on how the possible Republican U.S. presidential contender conducted business.
More than 24,000 pages of printed emails to and from Palin, who abruptly quit as governor of the oil-rich state nearly two years ago, were made available Friday to those willing to pay $725 for copies and hundreds of dollars more in delivery fees.
The emails, some heavily redacted to remove private or privileged information, come from the first two years of Palin's time as governor -- December 2006 to September 2008-- and range over subjects from tax breaks for oil companies to protecting bears from hunting in sanctuaries.
The six cartons of documents include emails from Palin's official account as well as two private Yahoo accounts she used to conduct state business, a practice that critics said circumvented Alaska's open-records law.
Dozens of reporters descended on the state capital, Juneau, to get earliest access to the documents, which were first requested in 2008 shortly after Republican presidential nominee John McCain chose Palin as his vice presidential running mate.
After the Republican loss to U.S. President Barack Obama, Palin quit the governorship with more than a year left in her term to embark on a more visible national career as a television commentator and author. She has not said whether she would run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
Journalists and Alaska political activist Andree McLeod sought the emails under state public records laws in 2008.
At that time, Palin was the subject of a legislative probe into accusations she abused her power as governor to seek revenge against a state trooper who had been married to her sister.
The New York Times and The Washington Post started scanning and posting the e-mails on their websites, and are asking readers to comment.
The MSNBC cable TV network is working with data research firm Crivella West to produce a searchable database online, some of which is available at palinemail.msnbc.msn.com.
About 2,400 pages are being withheld because state attorneys have deemed them to contain privileged information.
The emails "show a very engaged Governor Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state," said Tim Crawford, treasurer at SarahPAC, Palin's political action committee. "The emails detail a governor hard at work. Everyone should read them."
