Independent Report: Sarah Palin Abused Powers in Troopergate
Anchorage Daily News, October 10th, 2008
A legislative investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister.
The report by investigator Steve Branchflower was made public late this afternoon by a 12-0 vote of the Legislative Council, which authorized the investigation.
Branchflower’s report contains four findings. The first concludes that Palin violated the state’s executive branch ethics act, which says that “each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”
Branchflower was investigating whether Palin abused her power by pushing for the firing of state trooper Mike Wooten, who was involved in a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister. Palin and her husband, Todd, have accused Wooten of threatening Palin’s father.
The investigation also looked into whether Palin dismissed public safety commissioner Walt Monegan because he resisted pressure to fire Wooten.
In the second finding, Branchflower says Monegan’s refusal to fire Wooten was not the sole reason for his dismissal but that it was a “contributing factor.” Still, he said, Palin’s firing of Monegan was “a proper and lawful exercise” of the governor’s authority.
The third finding says a workers compensation claim filed by Wooten was handled appropriately. Number four concludes that the attorney general’s office failed to comply with Branchflower’s Aug. 6 request for information about the case in e-mails.
Conservative Republican blogger Lanny Davis is out today with his assessment of Troopergate. Remember this guy is Sarah’s friend!
The bipartisan report found that Gov. Palin committed a serious offense - abuse of governmental power. (There were 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats on the Commission.) Under the U.S. Constitution, abuse of power is an impeachable offense. Withholding 1,000 pages of underlying documents seems unjustified and suspicious.