ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin's husband plans to speak with an investigator looking into abuse-of-power allegations against the governor, his lawyer said yesterday.

Attorney Thomas Van Flein said he asked the investigator, Anchorage attorney Timothy Petumenos, to set the interview with Todd Palin for the third week of October but that he has not heard back from Petumenos.

Todd Palin refused to testify under subpoena last month in a separate investigation by the Alaska Legislature. Petumenos is heading a parallel probe by the state Personnel Board into whether Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, acted improperly when she fired public safety commissioner Walt Monegan this summer.

Both probes are looking into whether Palin, her husband and her aides pressured Monegan to fire a state trooper involved in a contentious divorce from Palin's sister and then fired Monegan when he wouldn't dismiss the trooper. Palin says Monegan was ousted over budget disagreements.

The McCain-Palin campaign has alleged that the Legislative Council's investigation is being manipulated to damage the governor before the Nov. 4 election. The investigator leading that probe, retired prosecutor Steven Branchflower, is due to release his findings Friday.

That release could be blocked by the Alaska Supreme Court, which will hear arguments next week in an emergency appeal by five Republican lawmakers trying to halt Branchflower's report. An Anchorage judge recently dismissed that lawsuit along with an attempt by several of the governor's aides to quash subpoenas for their testimony in the Legislature's investigation.

Van Flein said that appeal ruling may influence whether Todd Palin also will agree to questioning by Branchflower.

The two investigators could interview Todd Palin together or Branchflower could use Petumenos' interview in his own investigation, Van Flein said.

Sarah Palin originally agreed to cooperate with the Legislature's investigation. But after she joined the GOP ticket, she alleged that the probe had become tainted by politics and she filed a complaint against herself with the Personnel Board, which she says is the proper authority to investigate ethics allegations against a governor.