Palin violated state ethics law – Troopergate investigation

Posted on | 10 October 2008 | 2 Comments

Alaska Governor and GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin abused her power as governor a state legislative investigation concluded today.

“I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act,”  Special Investigator Steve Branchflower says in his first finding in the report.  That section prohibits using a state office for personal reasons or gain.

The report does find that Palin was within her rights to fire Public Safety Director Walt Monegan.  The violations address pressures put upon him and others prior to the firing.

“I find that although Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin,”  the report reads, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety.  In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statuatory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.”

However, citing 18 specific incidents, Steve Branchwater lays out a pattern of Palin, her husband Todd and members of the executive office contacting Monegan and others in a campaign trying to get Palin’s ex-brother-in-law fired.

“Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit; to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired. She had the authority and the power to require Mr. Palin to cease contacting subordinates, but she failed to act,”  the report states.

“Such impermissible and repeated contacts 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 such displeasure.”

Branchflower says he makes no determination about Palin’s husband.  Mr. Palin was not a member of the executive branch and his conduct did not fall under the scope of his findings.

However, Branchflower says he does understand the frustration of the family as it tried to get information about its complaints regarding Wooten.  Their attempts were blocked by privacy statutes covering such investigations.

“I believe their frustration was as real as was their skepticism about whether their complaints were being zealously investigated,” the report says.  “The irony is that the complaints were taken very seriously and a thorough investigation was underway.  However, the law prevented the Troopers from giving them any feedback whatsoever.”

Branchflower also casts doubts on the Palin family claim that Gov. Sarah Palin’s ex brother in law, Trooper Michael Wooten, was a danger to the family.

“Governor Palin has stated publicly that she and her family feared Trooper Wooten,” Special Investigator Steve Branchflower writes in his report.  “Yet the evidence presented has been inconsistent with such claims of fear.

In fact, Branchflower says, the head of Palin’s security detail reported that shortly after her election, the governor reduced her security details in Anchorage and Juneau.  Branchflower says that is a definite sign she was in fear of harm from Wooten or anyone else.

“I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide,” Branchflower writes, “and were offered to provide cover for the Palins’ real motivation:  to get Trooper fired for personal family reasons.”

After a day-long meeting behind closed doors, Alaska’s legislative council voted 12-0 to release to the public the Branchwater Report involving Troopergate.

[q url="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/10/alaska_legislative_probe_finds.html"]Before the report was released, the campaign of Palin’s running mate, Sen. John McCain, denounced the investigation as biased and said that the governor did nothing wrong. The campaign characterized Monegan’s firing as a “straightforward personnel decision” that has become “muddied with innuendo, rumor and partisan politics.”[/q]

[q url="http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/palin.investigation/index.html"]

At a campaign stop Thursday, Palin told reporters that she has “absolutely nothing to hide” in the investigation.

The governor originally agreed to cooperate with the Legislative Council inquiry, and disclosed in August that her advisers had contacted Department of Public Safety officials nearly two dozen times regarding her ex-brother-in-law.

But when she became Sen. John McCain’s running mate, her advisers began painting the investigation as a weapon of Democratic partisans.

Ahead of Friday’s hearing, Palin supporters wearing clown costumes and carrying balloons denounced the investigation as a “kangaroo court” and a “three-ring circus” led by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The state senator managing the investigation, Sen. Hollis French, fueled those complaints with a September 2 interview in which he warned the inquiry could yield an “October Surprise” for the GOP.

But Palin’s lawyers already had begun pushing for the state Personnel Board to launch its own investigation, calling it the proper legal venue for the matter

[/q]

Branchflower also concludes the workers compensation claim for Trooper Wooten was handled properly, and that Wooten was entitled to those benefits.

The report sayd the state attorney general’s office never turned over emails requested for the invesigation.

“Although I do not assert any bad faith on the part of the Attorney General’s offive of the AAG (assistant attorney general) I have been working with, it does seem there has been an unusual delay in material that was requested by me in writing two months ago,” the report says.

Branchflower also recommends the legislature look at amending laws to make refine which government agencies can get access to employees’ medical records.  He suggests a “reasonable relationship between the request for the records and the purpose for obtaining the records.”  Todd Palin managed to get the workers compensation records for his ex brother in law, and the recommendation addresses that.

The report also recommends that the state set up a better feedback system to those who file complaints against peace officers.

Branchflower says the governor declined an interview.  He says that would have assisted his investigation to better understand her motives and reasons.

PDF of Branchwater Report

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