Pie Spy, LLC - Using Trig for Marketing?

In hindsight, it's clear that then-governor Sarah Palin of Alaska spent the months between her defeat in the November 2008 national election and her resignation in the summer of 2009 positioning herself to cash in.  Her sudden celebrity status was worth millions.  Think about that - literally, millions. 


Trig Palin, the most famous Down syndrome one-year old in the world, was integral to her marketability. She was one of a kind - former VP candidate who had a disabled baby and fit into size two designer clothes.  Far right conservatives everywhere identified with her, ridiculously seeing her as being like themselves. Huh?


This cauldron of political and personal brew produced not only SarahPAC but Pie Spy, LLC.  The former we think we understand, and it's made millions, just as expected. The latter never got resolved to anyone's satisfaction, nor did interest ever really take off, in spite of brief mentions by Huffington Post, Rachael Maddow, other media, and all the anti-Palin blogs.   


I've done a review of what we now know, and I think the purpose behind Pie Spy is pretty clear. It was Sarah's legal means to make big money for and off of Trig's celebrity.  By the time you finish reading this, see if you agree with me that Bristol is likely not the only one of the Palin kids marketed to the public after John McCain's folly.


Chronologically, these events play into the story of Pie Spy, LLC:


October 2, 2008 John McCain's campaign pulls out of Michigan. Sarah Palin claims later she was not consulted or even notified, and with her team hatches a scheme to take their bus into Michigan. John McCain's aide says she's "going rogue."


October 29, 2008 With less than one week to go and polls showing the McCain/Palin ticket is behind,  Sarah tells Elizabeth Vargas "I'm not doin' this for naught."


November 4, 2008  Palin learns the American public rejected her. She had many resentments, including and maybe especially, toward the president-elect.


January 20, Barack Obama sworn in as President of the United States


March 5, 2009  President Obama hosts a White House Forum on Health Reform, taking steps to make good on a campaign promise, and getting national attention.


March 12, 17, 23, 31, and April 6, Health Care Reform is continually in the news with five White House Regional Forums held around the country, starting in Michigan.  ( Vermont, Iowa with South Dakota, North Carolina and California follow.)


April 3, 2009   Thomas Van Flein, attorney for Sarah Palin, files papers to create Spy Pie LLC, categorized as a “marketing” enterprise in the area  of “elderly and disabled persons.”

July 3, 2009  The Governor of Alaska announces she will quit at the end of the month. 


July 31, 2009  Huffington Post notes that Sarah's five days of silence on Facebook is causing her followers distress and curiosity


August 7, 2009 Sarah breaks her silence and comes out swinging against the President that she resents. In "baracuda style" she bares her teeth and targets Obama's health care with a Facebook post destined to make history:


"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."


Then, Sarah is out of sight spending time with her ghost writer for "Going Rogue," using the snide remark dating back to the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan as her title, in typical Sarah-gets-even style.


November 18, 2009 "Going Rogue" book tour begins, starting from Michigan.


December 28, 2009  PolitiFact deems the "death panels" charge by Sarah Palin the "Lie of the Year."


During the book tour, Trig Palin is presented to his adoring public. He is dragged onto and out of buses, bookstores, and airplanes. He is barefoot in cold weather. He is set down on parking lot pavement. He is underdressed when others have coats and caps. Is this really necessary?  You betcha! The book tour was only a beginning.

Connect the dots, folks. Pie Spy was a stroke of genius. Through this private corporation, Sarah Palin could, and presumably did make a ton of money for herself and for Trig.  He may even be wealthier than Bristol. We'll never know, but we can consider whether it's likely that Sarah would do the following things. 

Have Pie Spy provide the services of and charge a fee for every appearance of the disabled clientele they represented. Trig Palin wasn't "doing it for naught," whether he was at a book tour stop, political or not-for-profit event where his mother spoke about Death Panels, or told her right-to-life story, or talked to groups about Disability Rights.

Sarah, the owner and only "member" of Pie Spy, LLC, could also hire Chuck and Sally Heath to work for Pie Spy as marketing agents, making money off of (and for) her parents when they made appearances at events where Sarah mentioned, even once, Death Panels for the elderly.  Sarah's parents, as she said on Facebook when she started her private businessperson life, are examples of people threatened by "death panels." Use her own parents to market a lie?  You betcha!

Of course, anyone helping take care of the product being marketed, ie Trig, would also be paid by Pie Spy and their related travel and expenses for the 24 hour care would be a cost of business to be  billed to the organization that wanted to have him appear.  And you know, if they wanted Sarah Palin, and she wanted Trig to appear, then it happened. You know it.

All of the above would financially reward Sarah’s family members (Willow, Britta, any of 'em and all of 'em) while adding to her own “take” for each and every event. While the Supreme Court may consider Pie Spy LLC a “person” we know that profits made through this shell game are in the pocketbooks and bank accounts  of real people. People who live in Wasilla, Ak.  


Does it sound too greedy? Padding her already obnoxious take of $100,000 + or – in  “speaker’s fees” and milking organizations like women's groups, parent's of disabled children, colleges, etc. for even more money?  Yes, folks, Sarah would do that. If you don't believe that, you need to do your own research. If I started with examples I couldn't finish this post today.


SarahPAC's third quarter filing in 2010 showed that Pie Spy, LLC reimbursed the PAC $3863 for airline tickets. 


Must be Sarah wasn't carrying the right checkbook one day. Oh well, no problem. A simple accounting adjustment. But it gives us our one and only factual piece of information about the type of expenses Pie Spy has. And it fits the theory just fine.


After nearly two years, Pie Spy, LLC changed it's purpose by filing a legal notice in Alaska in January, 2011.  


The original purpose was described in the state filings as:

” NAICS 624120: Services for the Elderly and Persons With Disabilities . This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing nonresidential social assistance services to improve the quality of life for the elderly, persons diagnosed with mental retardation, or persons with disabilities. These establishments provide for the welfare of these of individuals in such areas as day care, nonmedical home care or homemaker services, social activities, group support, and companionship, “

to this: 

“NAICS 711510: Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers . This industry comprises independent (i.e., freelance) individuals primarily engaged in performing in artistic productions, in creating artistic and cultural works or productions, or in providing technical expertise necessary for these productions. This industry also includes athletes and other celebrities exclusively engaged in endorsing products and making speeches or public appearances for which they receive a fee. “

I can't say I know why Sarah changed her purpose for Pie Spy, LLC. But it seems to me that around that time, people on blogs began to ask "Where's Trig? Has anyone seen Trig?" 

Just coincidence?  Sarah Palin doesn't believe in coincidence. Why should we?