Troopergate Report Exonerates Palin

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Troopergate Report Exonerates Palin

Postby Jumper » Tue Nov 04, 2008 5:45 am

Posted on Mon, Nov. 03, 2008
Troopergate report exonerates Palin
By LISA DEMER
A new report, released just hours before the polls open on Election Day, exonerates 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 earlier this year, and it contradicts the earlier findings by a special counsel hired by the state Legislature.

The board is set up in state law as an independent agency to hear complaints of violations of state ethics law brought against executive branch employees. Members are appointed by the governor, though Palin only had a role in appointing one of the three members.

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 because Wooten stayed on the job.

For the first time, the report says Palin specifically denies Monegan's versions of events; specifically, she says two conversations that Monegan described having with her about Wooten never happened. Both Monegan and Palin made their statements under oath.

Reached Monday afternoon, Monegan said he hadn't read the new report but was disappointed it contradicted the earlier investigation.

Reacting to the governor denying two key conversations occurred, he said: "It happened."

Palin, after first promising to cooperate, never gave a statement to the special counsel hired by the Legislature, but she gave three hours of sworn testimony to the Personnel Board investigator, Tim Petumenos.

Petumenos concluded that 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.

"(Branchflower) assumed that the governor knew about things and should have stopped them when the evidence we induced is that she didn't know about them in the first place," Petumenos said at a Monday afternoon press conference in Anchorage.

"The legal analysis of the Branchflower report is completely wrong."

Some legislators dispute that.

State Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of the bipartisan Legislative Council, said Branchflower's report was solid and the work that went into it was meticulous.

"Absolutely spot on," said Elton, a Democrat from Juneau. The council approved the hiring of Branchflower and authorized last month's release of the legislative report, but didn't take a vote on whether members agreed with the report's substance.

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 say that their complaints that he shouldn't be on the force were justified.

The Troopergate matter became sharply politicized after Palin joined the ticket of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's in late August.

Within an hour of the report's release Monday, the McCain campaign put out a statement by Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein.

"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," the statement said.

The campaign had nothing to do with the timing of the report's release, said McCain-Palin spokesman Taylor Griffin.

(EDITORS: END OPTIONAL TRIM)

At a Monday afternoon press conference at the Hotel Captain Cook, Petumenos said he tried to get the report out last week but just didn't get it finished before now.

"I wish it had been released before. We were working until midnight and beyond over the last week," he said.

The Anchorage lawyer was hired as independent counsel for the Personnel Board to examine several complaints against Palin. About a complaint of political favoritism in the hiring of a state worker, Petumenos concluded that Palin had done nothing wrong. But he raised questions about the role of one of Palin's aides, Frank Bailey, in hiring Tom Lamal, who sponsored a fundraiser for Palin in 2006. Petumenos suggested that Bailey get additional training.

The legislative report by Branchflower found that Palin's failure to act to stop her husband and aides from pressuring Monegan and others to get rid of Wooten amounted to an abuse of power and a violation of the ethics act.

But the new Personnel Board report says that Branchflower applied the concept of inaction to vague circumstances.

The new report's 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.

Palin herself asked the three-member Personnel Board to determine whether her dismissal of Monegan violated the ethics law, but that was after the bipartisan Legislative Council already approved its own investigation.

After first agreeing to cooperate with the legislative investigation, Palin refused and her attorney declared the Personnel Board had jurisdiction, not the Legislature.

Petumenos' investigation covered several related complaints.

The troopers union - the Public Safety Employees Association - complained to the board that Palin and others improperly disclosed confidential personnel and workers' compensation records of Wooten, and that the governor and others engaged in continuous, systematic efforts to have Wooten fired.

Monegan asked the board for a hearing to clear his name.

Palin reappointed Debra English of Anchorage, who is the current chair person, in January. The other two, Laura Plenert of Ketchikan amd Al Tamagni of Anchorage, were already on the board when Palen took office in 2006 and their terms don't expire until 2010 and 2012. The members are volunteers.

The board usually just meets two to three times a year but has been busier this year dealing with complaints against Palin.
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Re: Troopergate Report Exonerates Palin

Postby Yeahsure » Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:54 am

She's still hot.

That's got to count for something, doesn't it?
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Re: Troopergate Report Exonerates Palin

Postby Fansy » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:41 pm

COOL BUT IS SHE STILL STUPID AS FUCK???
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