Juneau, Alaska (CNN) -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin moved quickly to link a key figure in a 2007 corruption scandal that rocked the state's political establishment to her defeated predecessor, newly released documents show.
"FYI -- I've asked Frank Bailey to help me track down soem [sic] evidence of past administration's dealing with Bill Allen," Palin wrote on May 8, 2007, a day after Allen pleaded guilty to bribery, extortion and conspiracy.
The document is one of the roughly 24,000 pages of records from Palin's administration released by Alaska state officials on Friday in response to requests from reporters dating to her 2008 entry into the national spotlight. The release follows Freedom of Information Act requests filed by CNN and five other news agencies made shortly after Palin was tapped to be Sen. John McCain's GOP vice presidential running mate.
Allen had been the CEO of the Alaska oilfield services company VECO, and federal prosecutors accused him of leading a scheme to bribe top lawmakers in exchange for favorable state action.
The day after Allen's guilty plea, Palin sent e-mails to staffers asking for information on his ties to her predecessor, Frank Murkowski. Palin had beaten Murkowski in 2006 in a primary battle in which she campaigned as a reformer, and backed an unsuccessful 2010 challenge to Murkowski's daughter, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Aides soon replied that VECO had paid $15,000 to fly Frank Murkowski and Allen to a Council of State Governments meeting in Thailand in 2004. Palin aides also asked Allen to resign from a seat on a state board that cultivated ties with the Canadian province of Alberta, a request to which Allen -- who was later sentenced to three years in prison -- quickly agreed.
Palin is now seen as a possible presidential candidate in 2012. A spokesman for her political action committee said the documents released Friday will show "a governor hard at work."
"The thousands upon thousands of e-mails released today show a very engaged Governor Sarah Palin being the CEO of her state," said Tim Crawford, treasurer of Sarah PAC, Palin's political action committee.
The messages detail the back-and-forth between Palin and her top aides as she pushed state support for a massive natural gas pipeline and new taxes on the oil and gas industry that supports the state's economy. It also gives a glimpse of the feedback that Palin was receiving when leading conservatives first began talking her up as a possible running mate for McCain, in the middle of 2008.
"As a life long Republican, I, along with many others, hope that you will come to the aid of your party and our great country and serve as our next Vice-President. Our party and our country need you," Georgia resident Douglas Brooks wrote. "As you can see, I am not a resident of the great State of Alaska, but even here in Georgia, we have heard about you and the great things you have done there."
And it shows her frustration with questions about her family's state-paid travel even before she entered the national spotlight, instructing an aide to remind a reporter "of the family travels w (with) me that I have personally pd (paid) for."
"Hopefully our records very clearly show that," Palin wrote in July 10, 2008. "Also, my return of every per diem offer for everything related to the kids ... and we need to be proactive in this issue with reminding him of all the steps taken to save state monies like no Anchorage apartment ... no chef ... security down from 7 to 2, whatever."
And longtime aide Kris Perry called the travel issue "ridiculous."
"We're talking about a Governor who had the state buy tickets on Hotwire saving the state hundreds of dollars rather than just going w/ the norm (much more expensive) or the fact that she often drives to the peninsula or Fairbanks or the fact that her family rarely travels w/her when most of the invitations are for first family."
Palin eventually paid back about $7,000 for travel expenses for her children after an ethics investigator determined nine trips were questionable. The settlement stated that Palin did not violate Alaska's ethics law or commit any wrongdoing, and that she followed the advice of experienced staff.
The documents released Friday include messages from both her official account as well as private accounts, according to Linda Perez, the administrative director for current Gov. Sean Parnell. A search was done "in an effort to capture everything in the state e-mail system" that would comply with the request, Perez said.
Some of the documents were redacted to remove names and others were withheld due to legal privileges. Perez said 2,275 pages are not being released.
E-mails for the remaining 10 months of Palin's tenure, before her resignation, are not yet being released. As early as last week, Palin said she was not worried about what was in the e-mails.
"I think every rock in the Palin household that could ever be kicked over and uncovered anything, it's already been kicked over," Palin told Fox News Sunday.
Palin told Fox News Sunday that "those e-mails obviously weren't meant for public consumption," saying she was sure the material would be taken out of context.
And Alaska Dispatch political columnist Amanda Coyne says all the attention is "for what I'm betting won't be much."
"There will be tidbits, but nothing that a few local reporters and bloggers couldn't cover quite nicely," Coyne wrote in a recent column.CNN's Drew Griffin, Kathleen Johnston, Katie Glaeser and Steve Brusk contributed to this report.
