Members of the state Senate Judiciary Committee put questions to a governor’s nominee for the Alaska Police Standards Council, asking about her provocative social media posts during a confirmation hearing on April 22.
The nominee resigned from the council less than 48 hours after the hearing.
At the committee hearing, Veronica Lambertsen defended conspiracy theories around the Holocaust, blood-harvesting from children and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Lambertsen was nominated by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to serve a three-year term representing one of four public seats on the 13-member Alaska Police Standards Council, which oversees law enforcement standards across the state.
She was appointed to fill a rural seat on the council, even though she lives in the Municipality of Anchorage — which some legislators questioned whether that made her ineligible for the seat.
She had served on the council since being nominated in August, subject to pending legislative confirmation this spring.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office confirmed on April 24 that Lambertsen had resigned from the council, but did not provide a reason for the resignation.
Lambertsen is the owner and operator of a motel in Birch Creek, on the highway from Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula.
Lawmakers in the House expressed skepticism in a hearing earlier this month and questioned Lambertsen’s experience, connections with law enforcement and eligibility for the seat.
In her Senate committee confirmation hearing, following questions about her background, Anchorage Sen. Matt Claman, chair of the committee, asked about several social media posts going back many years.
“One of the postings that I saw was a posting that you didn’t believe the Holocaust was real,” Claman said. “Do you believe the Holocaust occurred during World War II?”
Lambertsen said it was a tragedy, but that she has questions. “Do I believe something happened at the Holocaust, and a tragedy and a lot of people died?” she said. “Yes, I believe that actually happened. Are we being told the true story about it all? No, I don’t believe we’re being told the true story about it all.”
“What do you believe is the true story?” Claman asked.
“That I don’t know yet,” she replied.
The Alaska Police Standards Council is charged with setting and enforcing standards for law enforcement, including police, probation, parole and correctional officers. They’re also tasked with reviewing regulation and investigating misconduct, such as officer discipline and use of force.
A storage drive of selected posts from Lambertsen’s public Facebook page compiled by legislative staff and reviewed by the Alaska Beacon includes posts going back to 2021 related to a variety of conspiracy theories — questioning the shape of the Earth, the moon landing, the 2020 election results and the Jan. 6 insurrection, as well as posts related to the far-right internet conspiracy theory movement QAnon.
Claman asked about a QAnon claim that children are being harvested for a chemical called adrenochrome from their blood.
After a long pause, Lambertsen responded similarly that she had questions. “From information I have seen and documentation that was provided, the question that should be asked,” she said.
Among her other posts (capitalization verbatim): “we never landed on the moon,” and “we really live on the flat earth under a dome,” and “we didn’t lose the election” of 2020, plus “project blue beam technology” caused 9/11, and “THERE ARE 3 CLONING CENTERS IN AMERICA! PEOPLE NEED TO REALIZE THERE ARE 50,000 CLONES WALKING AMONG US IN AMERICA!”
Lambertsen told the Juneau Independent that what she posts on social media is separate from what’s involved in serving on the council.
Though the Senate Judiciary Committee forwarded Lambertsen’s nomination for a vote by a joint session of the Legislature next week, her name will be pulled from the confirmation agenda now that she has resigned her appointment.
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