Yet the report documents a clear campaign within the governor's office to get rid of Wooten, despite Monegan's repeated warnings that the state was risking a lawsuit as a result of the contacts because Wooten had already been investigated and disciplined in connection with the same complaints.
These contacts came not only from the governor herself -- who spoke to Monegan personally, by telephone and by e-mail -- but from her chief of staff, several other senior staff members and even the state attorney general.
The report establishes for the first time that Palin deliberately set up Todd Palin to handle communications over the Wooten matter after Monegan warned her it was inappropriate for her to be making such contacts herself.
The governor and her husband were motivated by "passion and frustration," Monegan testified. "They wanted severe discipline, probably termination, and . . . I had this ominous feeling that I may not be long for this job if I didn't somehow respond accordingly."
Branchflower concluded in his report that these contacts were a breach of ethics and an abuse of the governor's office.
"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 investigation concluded, 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." The report also said that Todd Palin at one point asked to see Wooten's personnel file.
The state Ethics Act 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.
The report made no specific recommendations on penalties or how to proceed.
Civil penalties range, theoretically, from impeachment by the Legislature to a reprimand or a fine of up to $5,000 by the state personnel board, but most legislative sources thought it unlikely any action would be taken.
