Sarah Palin e-mails: First details emerge

Still, I think they are going to excessive lengths compared to others who are actually candidates.

That is answered by....

These emails were requested a long time ago under FOIA, mostly when everyone was thinking "who the hell is Sarah Palin?" and a lot of stuff about Troopergate was flying around.

Though it could be added that this FOI request was just one of nearly 2000 they made that year for official correspondance.