Sarah Palin
Alaska Legislative Probe Finds Palin Misused Power
By James V, Grimaldi and Kimberly Kindy
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) abused her executive power when she fired her public safety commissioner this year in the midst of an intense effort to oust her former brother-in-law from the state police force, a special prosecutor has concluded.
Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, had been accused of dismissing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, a career law enforcement official, after he rebuffed attempts by Palin, her husband Todd, and cabinet officials to reopen an investigation into Palin's brother-in-law, state Trooper Mike Wooten. After his firing, Monegan said he believed that comments in conversations and e-mails from Palin, her husband Todd and other state officials were an attempt to get him to fire Wooten.
After his investigation, Steven Branchflower, a former prosecutor hired by a Republican-controlled legislative committee, concluded that Monegan's rebuff of the entreaties played a role in his firing but was not the only reason.
Palin's supporters argued that the report, released less than four weeks from Election Day, was a politically motivated attempt to damage the Republican presidential ticket. The report initially had been due at the end of the month, but the Democrat managing the investigation said its release was moved to Oct. 10 so it would not come on the eve of the election.
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."
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