When scandals collide. A little vindication for Shailey Tripp.

I have been covering Shailey Tripp's story since early 2011. I even conducted the first on the record interview.

I followed numerous leads provided by Shailey, and even introduced her to Joe McGinniss, but could only get so far before I would hit a brick wall. The same has happened with others who have pursued the story of Shailey and Todd Palin.

That is not to say that what Shailey has claimed is not true, and in fact much of what she has said has been supported by facts. Just that there were numerous obstacles placed in the way of anybody who tried to dig too far into the story.

So after many of the leads grew cold I moved onto other topics and other sources, while Malia Litman and other bloggers took the lead on Shailey's story.

However just recently new information that lends new credibility to Shailey's amazing story has emerged.

You might remember this from that Anchorage Press article:  

A former pornography company owner and co-founder of an “end times” fundamentalist group who joined the Alaska National Guard in 2003 is now the guard’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Training, despite military investigators finding him directly responsible for empowering Alaska guard recruiters to sexually assault and harass female soldiers, recruits and civilians. 

Lt. Col. Joseph R. Lawendowski, 46, was recommended for “other than honorable” discharge in a confidential report that military investigators submitted to high-ranking Alaska National Guard officers on March 3 of this year. The findings of this “AR 15-6” report were not released to the public. (AR 15-6 refers to Army Regulation 15-6, covering the investigation of misconduct by officers.) 

The March 3 report finds that Lawendowski failed to act on multiple complaints of serious misconduct, including sexual assault, against four senior noncommissioned officers under his command. The report covers the period from November 2007 to May 2012 when Lawendowski was commander of the Alaska Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention Battalion (RRB). 

What is interesting is that Lawendowski's name popped up over a year ago in an online archive of  information about Shailey Tripp's case.  Specifically right here:

Joseph Lawendowski 

- several men under his command saw Shailey Tripp for sexual services
 - knows Todd Palin through the Iron Dog.

That last part is confirmed a little further down in the Anchorage Press article:

The investigators also found that Lawendowski had condoned and furthered illegal steroid use by RRB personnel, and had violated National Guard codes of conduct on multiple occasions. These included using government vehicles for outings to strip clubs, and Lawendowski being publicly intoxicated at the 2012 Iron Dog Race after-party. (Lawendowski arranged for the Alaska National Guard to become the presenting sponsor of the Iron Dog snowmobile race beginning in 2010. According to the AR 15-6 report, he improperly exchanged more than 10,000 text messages with a female Iron Dog employee during sponsorship negotiations in April and May 2010.)

A connection to Shailey Tripp AND to the Iron Dog?

Look I am not one who does not think that coincidences are possible, but THIS one?

How could Shailey possibly know the name of a Lieutenant Colonel in the Alaska National Guard, who coincidentally once owned a porno company, was directly responsible for some of the sexual assault happening under his command, frequented strip clubs, AND had a connection to the Iron Dog race, if not through Todd Palin?

If any of you have a better answer I am certainly interested in hearing it.