WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin maintained a private e-mail account that she used to communicate with a small circle of staff outside the state government’s secure official e-mail system, according to the Wasilla company that established the site.
The account was separate from the Yahoo e-mail address that was abandoned Sept. 17, the day hackers penetrated the account and posted pages from it on the Internet. Palin had routinely used her Yahoo address for state business.
Quentin Algood, the owner of ITS Alaska, said a discreet e-mail system was created from an old campaign account, with access confined to “a group of people, her closest confidantes and co-workers and advisers and the person she sleeps with.” Algood said the system was maintained by Frank Bailey, a former Palin aide.
Bailey disputed the existence of the account last week, but a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign acknowledged the accounts in a statement Tuesday.
The existence of additional private e-mail accounts may affect two state probes of attempts by Palin to push for removal of a state trooper who divorced the governor’s sister.
The accounts were shuttered at the same time as the Yahoo accounts, ITS technician Ryan Gattis said. He said the accounts’ contents were backed up and saved.
