By Charles Piller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers and Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers|October 11, 2008
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.
