A new report released Monday — hours before the polls open on Election Day — exonerates Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the Troopergate controversy.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A new report released Monday — hours before the polls open on Election Day — exonerates Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in the Troopergate controversy.
The state Personnel Board-sanctioned investigation is the second into whether Palin violated state ethics law in firing her public-safety commissioner, and it contradicts the earlier findings by a special counsel hired by the state Legislature.
Both investigations found that Palin was within her rights to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
But the new report says the Legislature’s investigator was wrong to conclude that Palin abused her power by allowing aides and her husband, Todd, to pressure Monegan and others to dismiss her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten. Palin was accused of firing Monegan after Wooten stayed on the job.
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The Palins have argued that Wooten was a loose cannon who had Tasered his stepson, drank beer in his patrol car, and threatened Palin’s father, and that their complaints that he shouldn’t be on the force were justified.
The Troopergate matter became sharply politicized after Palin was announced as Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate in Tuesday’s election.
The report, released at a Monday afternoon news conference at the Hotel Captain Cook, presents the findings and recommendations of Anchorage lawyer Timothy Petumenos, hired as independent counsel for the Personnel Board to examine several complaints against Palin.
Petumenos wrote the Legislature’s special counsel, former state prosecutor Steve Branchflower, used the wrong state law as the basis for his conclusions and also misconstrued the evidence.
His findings and recommendations include:
• There is no cause to believe Palin violated the state ethics law in deciding to dismiss Monegan as public-safety commissioner.
• There is no cause to believe Palin violated the state ethics law in connection with Wooten.
• There is no cause to believe any other state official violated the ethics act.
• There’s no basis to conduct a hearing to “address reputational harm,” as requested by Monegan.
• The state needs to address the issue of using private e-mails for government work and to examine how records are kept in the governor’s office. Palin used her Yahoo e-mail account for state business until it was hacked.
“Gov. Palin is pleased that the independent investigator for the Personnel Board has concluded that she acted properly in the reassignment of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan,” her attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said in a statement.
An earlier, separate investigation by the Legislature found that Palin had abused her office.
Monegan said he felt pressure from Palin, her husband and her staff to fire a state trooper who had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister. Palin denied the claim, and said Monegan was fired last July because she wanted the department to head in a new direction.
Monegan told The Associated Press on Monday that he was “perplexed and disappointed” by the report. It was prepared by Timothy Petumenos, an independent investigator for the Alaska Personnel Board.
“It conflicts with the first investigation and then casts doubts on both of them. So, it doesn’t really resolve anything,” he said. “If it did, then I could walk away. It does seem to fly in the face of circumstantial evidence.”
Although the legislative report concluded that Palin had abused her office, it upheld the firing because Monegan was an at-will employee.
Alaska Personnel Board investigations are normally secret, but the three-member board decided to release this report, citing public interest in the matter given Palin’s status as a candidate for national office.
Documents released Monday did not include transcripts of separate depositions given by Palin and her husband, Todd.
That deposition was the only one given by Sarah Palin. She was not subpoenaed to answer questions in the Legislature’s investigation, though her husband, Todd, gave an affidavit in that probe.
Palin initially said she would cooperate with the Legislature’s probe. But after she became John McCain’s running mate, she said the investigation had become too partisan and filed an ethics grievance against herself with the personnel board.