Legislative panel finds Palin abused authority, ethics laws

An investigator for an Alaskan legislative panel issued a report Friday night saying that as governor, Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president, violated ethics laws and abused her authority in seeking to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper.

The panel found that inaction on her dismissal request was at least one factor in Palin firing her state public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan.

The governor's husband, Todd Palin, was also involved in seeking the trooper's dismissal after a contentious divorce for allegedly threatening the governor's family members, illegally shooting a moose, driving under the influence of alcohol and Tasering his young son.

The report is not a legal indictment; the panel has no power to prosecute. Members said they'd await a state Personnel Board report before considering some action, probably not before January.

The embarrassing report, which Palin charged had become a partisan tool since her GOP VP nomination, is certain to create undesirable distractions for the McCain-Palin ticket as it struggles to ....

... regain political momentum in the presidential race and close a gap in polls with the Democratic ticket.

Late Friday a Palin spokeswoman issued this statement:

"Today's report shows that the governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan. The report also illustrates what we've known all along: This was a partisan-led inquiry run by Obama supporters, and the Palins were completely justified in their concern regarding Trooper Wooten, given his violent and rogue behavior.

"Lacking evidence to support the original Monegan allegation, the Legislative Council seriously overreached, making a tortured argument to find fault without basis in law or fact. The governor is looking forward to cooperating with the Personnel Board and continuing her conversation with the American people regarding the important issues facing the country."

The reference to the Personnel Board concerns a separate investigation into Palin's firing of Monegan, which she claims was over his refusal to make ordered budget cuts.

As The Times' Kim Murphy and Charles Piller report elsewhere on this website, the governor's actions or inactions were found to be an inappropriate breach of state ethics laws:

"The evidence supports the conclusion," the investigator said, "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 later adds: "There is evidence of her active participation."

The reporters' full story is available here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Associated Press

Comments

[Paul]

Surprise!

[Victor]

@Alessandro

It doesn't matter whether the brother-in-law was a jerk or not, Palin broke the law. Just because someone's a jerk, doesn't justify an elected official breaking the law.

[FreeTHinker]

Smells like another hard-hitting L.A. Times investigation...brought to you by the Democratic Party and the same team that gave us the investigative report about a 1994 attack on the rapper Tupac Shakur.

[Just askin]

Walt Monegan SHOULD have been fired for not firing Trooper Mike Wooten. Wooten, a paid public employee, threatened to kill persons, tasered a child and is purported to have been caught driving under the influence. But all of this is grossly overlooked by the willing accomplices in the media....why is it that the citizens of this country must ask the tough questions, and not the reporters of these stories??

http://usconservatives.about.com/b/2008/09/05/emerging-facts-about-alaska-state-trooper-mike-wooten.htm

[Alessandro Machi]

I am so tired of the law always going after the second person to commit a crime, but not the first. A politician who can't protect her own family will be looked on as weak, factor in that the politician is a woman and the bias is even greater.

So once again, I ask our media, was the guy a punk, more than a punk, a misunderstood punk, or not a punk at all? It does matter. Only in a stepford society where all the citizens are lemmings does it not matter.

[john galt]

BROTER IN LAW WAS (and still is ) A BIG TIME JERK.

It's funny how we love to run to judge people without knowing the facts.

I live in Alaska and everyone is laughing at the hype that this investigation has generated in the national level. READ THE WHOLE REPORT.

Palin DID NOT break ANY law.

[Randy]

What the panel found was that they could publish an opinion which has not been tested by the justice system. If you want to make something shady appear to be true, publish it in a 350 page report, then it must be true!

[Lloyd Revalee]

Why do we keep hearing "she broke thelaw", when the investigation showed that she may have abused her office but broke now laws. In any event, she got rid of an individual that should never have been in law enforcement. It seems that the socialist leaning media and the Obama campaign (actually one and the same) are bent on ruining an intelligent, dedicated public servant. The people we have sent to Washington to represent us have ruined the country, and they are deathfully afraid that a much more qualified individual will show them them up.

[Kat Colclasure-Ohio]

If you read the entire investigative report, how can you violate an ethical code and not be unlawful? Regardless, she violated an ethical code, CLEARLY. She was aware of what her husband was doing and failed to stop him. OR, HE was insubordinate in not following her wife's directive - and should have been fired as "first gentleman" ! There was NO evidence anyone would be "killed" but a reference in "taking down" which I interpret as taking down (reveal) Mr. and Mrs. Palin and opening Pandora's Box to reveal the truth of so much more....ALSO, the report revealed Mr. and Mrs. Palin did not request security protection for themselves or family members (due to the false claim they had been threatened) but rather, Mrs. Palin actually decreased the size of her security detail and there were no special instructions or changes requested by Mrs. Palin asking her security detail "protect" her family. This really is NOT about Mr. Wooten but about another gentleman, Mr. Monegan, who lost his job because he had integrity. ANOTHER THING, I am quite sure my employer would frown on my spouse or any other family member contacting them (over 30 times) to discuss a family, personal matter and would not tolerate his attending meetings with me or being copied into corporate business emails. Doesn't Todd Palin have a REAL job? What was John McCain thinking of doing with Todd Palin??????