http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-troopergate11-2008oct11,0,686306
9.story

Palin abused her power, legislative inquiry finds
The governor's unhappiness over a trooper not being fired probably
contributed to the public safety commissioner's dismissal, the report says.

By Charles Piller and Kim Murphy
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

7:06 PM PDT, October 10, 2008

ANCHORAGE — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin violated ethics laws and abused her
power as governor in pressing to have her former brother-in-law fired as a
state trooper, an independent legislative investigation concluded today.

In a report whose release was the subject of a high-stakes political
showdown that went all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, investigator
Stephen Branchflower concluded that Palin communicated her displeasure with
the trooper, Mike Wooten, and allowed her husband to apply pressure to have
Wooten fired.

The report also found that Palin's unhappiness that Wooten had not been
fired was "a likely contributing factor" in the firing of former
Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan. Monegan testified that he had
received repeated communications from Palin and her husband over Wooten.

However, the Wooten issue was "not the sole reason" Monegan was fired, the
report said. Palin, who has been fighting off allegations of wrongdoing in
the so-called Troopergate case since Republican presidential nominee John
McCain's running mate, has insisted Monegan was fired because he ignored
her demands to cut budgets in his department.

The governor's husband, Todd Palin, has admitted he advocated forcefully to
have Wooten removed because of his allegedly inappropriate actions,
including driving under the influence of alcohol, shooting a moose without
a permit, threatening Sarah Palin's father and giving his son a slight jab
with an electric Taser gun.

The report found, however, that this intervention was an inappropriate
violation of state ethics laws.

"The evidence supports the conclusion that Gov. Palin, at the least,
engaged in 'official action' by her inaction, if not her active
participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper
Wooten fired," the report said, adding that "there is evidence of her
active participation."

The report found that Palin "knowingly, as that term is defined in the
[ethics] statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the governor's office and
the resources of the governor's 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."

This activity was in violation of the state Ethics Act, the report said,
which holds that public officials have a duty of public trust that prevents
them from attempting to benefit a personal or financial interest through
official action.

Twelve members of the legislature's 14-member Legislative Council, the
interim body that meets when the Legislature is not in session, deliberated
in closed session over the findings for most of the day before voting
unanimously to release the 263-page document publicly. One member voted by
telephone.

Several Republican legislators had launched a legal effort to halt the
inquiry, which they said had become tainted by politics after Palin's
nomination to the GOP ticket.

But even the eight Republicans on the council supported the report's
release, though many emphasized they were voting to make it public, not in
endorsement of its findings.

"I would encourage people to be very cautious, to look at it with a very
jaundiced eye, and to realize there's much more in it than just the
one-page findings," said Sen. Gary Stevens, a Republican.

The McCain-Palin campaign has thrown its support behind a separate inquiry
being carried out by the state personnel board, not yet completed. They
agreed with the contention of the Republican legislators who filed the suit
that the current report was bound to be politically biased.

"The Palins make no apologies for wanting to protect their family and
wanting to bring attention to the injustice of a violent trooper keeping
his badge and abusing the workers' compensation system," Palin's campaign
said in an analysis of the inquiry distributed before the report's release.

"The governor has consistently demonstrated, in statements and through
documents she has made available, that she reassigned Mr. Monegan because
of legitimate policy differences and disputes over budget," the analysis
said.

charles.piller@...

kim.murphy@...

Piller reported from Anchorage and Murphy from Seattle.