So she was found guilty the in the first investigation by the Alaska Legislature but she had a second investigation and was cleared on the eve of the election?!
Coincidence? I think Not.
A second investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office to pursue a personal vendetta has found “no probable cause” to believe she violated an Alaska ethics law by trying to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired or by actually dismissing the state’s public safety commission, who was the trooper’s boss.
The conclusion by an independent investigator for the state Personnel Board contradicts a determination last month of an inquiry by the Alaska Legislature that Ms. Palin had breached the ethics act by pressing to have the trooper, Michael Wooten, dismissed. That investigation found, however, that the governor was within her right to fire her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan.
Timothy J. Petumenos, an Anchorage lawyer who conducted the investigation for the Personnel Board, concluded, "There is no probable cause to believe that the governor or any other state official violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with these matters."
Ms. Palin’s lawyer, Thomas V. Van Flein, said in an e-mail statement concerning the Monegan firing, ‘The Governor is grateful that this investigation has provided a fair and impartial review of this matter and upholds the Governor’s ability to take measures when necessary to ensure that Alaskans have the best possible team working to serve them.”
With regard to the Legislature’s investigation by Stephen E. Branchflower, Mr. Van Flein wrote, “Mr. Petumenos determined that the Branchflower report’s findings that Governor Palin abused her power had no legal basis and that Governor Palin did not violate the Ethics Act as Mr. Branchflower incorrectly asserted.”
The three members of the Personnel Board are each appointed to six-year terms by the governor.Governor Palin has only had a hand in reappointing one of the members earlier this year. The other two current members were appointed by former Gov. FrankMurkowski.
Mr. Monegan has stated he believes he was removed from his job because he would not bend to pressure from Ms. Palin, her husband, Todd, and her subordinates to fire Trooper Wooten.
In an interview on Monday night, he said: “Obviously I’m disappointed with the outcome and the contradictory nature of this investigation, compared to the first one.”
“It’s not only me. There were senior members of the department of public safety who got the calls, felt the pressure and knew exactly what was going on,” Mr. Monegan said. “I will always feel that there were conversations and e-mails that were intended to inappropriately use an official government position to settle a family matter.”
The first inquiry into Mr. Monegan’s firing was unanimously opened in July by the 14-member Republican-dominated Legislative Council, about a month before Ms. Palin was chosen by Senator John McCain to be the Republican nominee for vice president. The council also voted unanimously in October to release the 263-page report on the Legislature’s inquiry by Mr. Branchflower, a former prosecutor in Anchorage.
Kim Elton, the chairman of the Legislative Council and a Democrat, said that he was surprised by the Personnel Board’s findings.
“I think the ethics act is very clear,” he said in an interview, “and that Mr. Branchflower strung together a series of events that made it clear there was not only smoke but fire.”
Mr. Elton added, “The governor had conversations that did put inappropriate pressure on the commissioner, but then after that people were doing it in her stead, and I can’t believe she did not know it was happening.”
Ms. Palin initially said that she welcomed an investigation into Mr. Monegan’s removal. But she then declined to cooperate with the Legislature’s inquiry, which the McCain-Palin campaign insisted had been manipulated by pro-Obama Democratic lawmakers trying to influence the outcome of the presidential election. Ms. Palin said that the Personnel Board was the appropriate body to deal with the matter, and she pledged to cooperate with the separate inquiry by the panel after filing a complaint against herself.
Trooper Wooten and the governor’s sister, Molly McCann, split up in January 2006 after an acrimonious divorce and child-custody battle that intensified the Palin family’s dislike of him.
After several complaints were lodged against Trooper Wooten, he was suspended from the state police force for five days. But the Legislature’s report pointed out various instances in which the governor, her husband and her subordinates sought further punishment for him, even though Mr. Monegan and others told them the case was closed and had been taken as far as the law and civil service rules would allow.
The report on the Legislature’s investigation explained that Ms. Palin had herself applied pressure to get Trooper Wooten dismissed and also let her husband and subordinates significantly press for his firing. The report concluded that Ms. Palin violated the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.
”Such impermissible and repeated contacts,” the Legislature’s report stated, ”create conflicts of interests for subordinate employees who must choose to either please a superior or run the risk of facing that superior’s displeasure and the possible consequences of that displeasure.”Source
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