Alaska Inquiry Concludes Palin Abused Powers By
SERGE F. KOVALESKI
Published: October 10, 2008
Gov.
Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to try to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired, an investigation by the
Alaska Legislature has concluded. The inquiry found, however, that she was within her right to dismiss her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who was the troopers boss.
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[URL]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/10/us/11trooper3_190.jpg [/URL]Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse Getty Images
Gov. Sarah Palin at a rally at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., on Wednesday.
Related
Palins Repeatedly Pressed Case Against Trooper (October 10, 2008)
Text of Report (pdf)
Blog
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Supporters of Gov. Sarah Palin on Friday in Anchorage.
A 263-page report released Friday by lawmakers in Alaska found that Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, had herself exerted pressure to get Trooper Michael Wooten dismissed, as well as allowed her husband and subordinates to press for his firing, largely as a result of his temperament and past disciplinary problems.
Such impermissible and repeated contacts, the report states, create conflicts of interests for subordinate employees who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superiors displeasure and the possible consequences of that displeasure. The report concludes that the action was a violation of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.
What now lies ahead is not fully known at this point. Ms. Palin could be censured by the Legislature, but that is unlikely.
Ms. Palin, who had been elected governor in 2006, was tapped as Senator
John McCains running mate in late August, about a month after an inquiry was opened into her firing of Mr. Monegan. Her political ascendancy took what was essentially a state personnel matter and elevated it into a national issue, one that has been simmering in the background of an increasingly heated presidential race.
In the report, the independent investigator, Stephen E. Branchflower, a former prosecutor in Anchorage, said that Ms. Palin wrongfully allowed her husband, Todd, to use state resources as part of the effort to have Trooper Wooten dismissed.
The report says she knowingly permitted
Todd Palin to use the governors office and the resources of the governors office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired.
Further, it says, she knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda.
Three years ago, Trooper Wooten and the governors sister, Molly McCann, were locked in a harsh divorce and child-custody battle that further turned the Palin family against him. The couple divorced in January 2006.
As a result of several complaints against Trooper Wooten, he was suspended from the state police force for five days. However, Mr. Branchflowers report found numerous instances in which Ms. Palin, her husband and her subordinates tried to press for harsher punishment, even though Mr. Monegan and others told them they had gone as far as the law and civil service rules would allow.
Ms. Palin has denied that anyone told Mr. Monegan to dismiss Trooper Wooten, or that the commissioners ouster had anything to do with the trooper, who remains on the force.
Mr. Monegan has said that he believes he lost his job because he would not bend to pressure to dismiss Trooper Wooten. On July 28, the Legislative Council, a bipartisan body of House and Senate members that can convene to make decisions when the Legislature is not in session, approved an independent investigation into whether the governor abused the powers of her office to pursue a personal vendetta.
Mr. Monegan said in an interview Friday night that he felt relieved.
I feel that my beliefs and opinions that Wooten was a significant factor, if not the factor, in my termination have been validated, Mr. Monegan said, adding, I was resisting the governor from the very beginning on the Wooten matter to protect her from exactly what just happened to her here, being found to have acted inappropriately.
The report was released after Alaska lawmakers emerged from a private session in Anchorage where they spent more than of six hours discussing the ethics report and what portions should be made public. The legislative council ended up voting unanimously to make part of the overall report public.
At a news conference Friday evening, a local McCain-Palin campaign spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, said that Mr. Branchflowers abuse of power finding was the result of an overreach by the investigator who went beyond the intent of the original inquiry.
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Karen Aho contributed reporting from Anchorage.
There was also an article released by the Palins office that cleared her of any wrong doing. It must be awesome to
investigate yourself and find that you did nothing wrong!
Kind of like LPSG!
What a novel concept!
cigarbabe:saevil: