Joe Miller - Crook!

The only question remaining is "How many laws did Joe Miller break?"

A number of reporters seem to have been working simultaneously on Joe Miller's non-Constitutional scam to save a few hundred bucks back in the 1990s, before he was an Alaska resident for the purpose of ADF&G regulations. Now the Alaska Dispatch's Craig Medred and The Mudflats' Legal Eagle have gone further than has the Anchorage Daily News' Sean Cockerham.

Here's Medred:

Others have been cited for illegally obtaining resident hunting and fishing licenses in Alaska after doing exactly what Miller did. And there have been some cases in which people who have been in the state 11 straight months without sojourns Outside have been cited because they did not wait the final month before getting such a license.

Here's Legal Eagle:

Ultimately, we are certain that Joe Miller either flat-out lied about his income or was exceptionally disingenuous on his application for indigent hunting and fishing permits. We also know for sure that Joe Miller lied about his residency status on these applications. It is likely that his wife Kathleen also lied about her residency status to get these permits.

And is it just me, or is anyone else a bit skeptical that Mrs. Miller went out and shot her own moose? Now, I’ve known many a fine Alaskan woman who has shot and killed moose and various other wildlife, and many more who are far better fisherpersons than I am, so it is certainly possible. But how likely is it that a recent Alaskan transplant, who apparently spent the greater part of a decade pregnant or recovering from giving birth, went out and shot her first moose in 1995?

The penalty for knowingly making a false statement or omitting a material fact in an application under AS 16.05 is a class A misdemeanor. AS 16.05.420(b); see also AS 11.56.210 (unsworn falsification). There is absolutely no question that Joe Miller was not a resident of the State of Alaska when he applied for these resident permits. It is likely that his wife was also not a resident when she applied for these same permits. Joe Miller should be penalized for lying on his application and saving himself $245, and his wife should likely be punished as well.

Of course, there is an additional issue: did Joe Miller lie about his income in order to get a further reduction in the cost of his falsely-obtained resident permit? (From $55 to $5) Perhaps the Alaska State Troopers need to take a look at Mr. Miller’s income in 1994 — I would suggest starting with his 1994 mortgage application and his tax returns for that year. I’m sure that the military has records of the payments it made to Mr. Miller for his service in the reserves, and I’ll bet that the USDA has a record of the farm subsidies that Joe received. There is also the small matter of the Kansas farmland that the Millers claimed to have sold off to buy their house, and whatever subsidies Kathleen received for home schooling whatever portion of their brood of children existed at the time.

Fish and wildlife are not just important in Alaska; they are fundamental to our lifestyle and our identity as Alaskans. Thousands of Alaskans rely on subsistence hunting and fishing to feed their families, and Joe Miller gamed the system to get permits illegally. He lied and cheated to save himself $295 and he stole a moose and an unknown number of fish.

Joe Miller is a poacher and a liar.

And there's more coming, Randy DeSoto. You may need treatment for clinical depression before this is over.