Panel: Palin Abused Power in trooper case.

[andophiroxia]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska's governor and violated state ethics law by trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police, a state investigator's report concluded Friday.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is under investigation for the firing of her public safety commissioner.





"Gov. Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda," the report states.
Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan's refusal to fire State Trooper Mike Wooten from the state police force was "likely a contributing factor" to Monegan's July dismissal, but Palin had the authority as governor to fire him, the report by former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower states.
The investigator's report states Palin's efforts to get Wooten fired broke a state ethics law that bars public officials from pursuing personal interest through official action. Watch what led to investigation »
The lawyers representing both Sarah and Todd Palin issued a three-page attack on the investigative report, including the contention that Ethics Act violations can only involve financial motives and financial "potential gain, or the avoidance of a potential loss."
"Here, there is no accusation, no finding and no facts that money or financial gain to the Governor was involved in the decision to replace Monegan," the lawyers said.
Any abuse of power, they said, was on the part of the Legislative Council members, not the Palins.
"Sen. French and Sen. Green may have abused their government power by using public money to pursue a personal vendetta against the Governor, and then agreeing to pursue the PSEA attack against an administration that would not cave in to outrageous union demands."
"Put bluntly, Branchflower completely misapplied the Ethics Act and has instead sought to create a headline to smear the Governor," the lawyers wrote.
Monegan has said he was fired in July after refusing pressure to sack Wooten, who had gone through an acrimonious divorce and custody battle with Palin's sister. View a timeline of the investigation »
Monegan said he was "relieved" by the finding.

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Wow. This is amusing. I'm reading through this brief, and it's a lot of "he said, she said so far". You can go ahead and download the PDF from the first link. Funny enough-- I can't find any conclusive evidence so far to determine any guilt. It's under the "Don't Miss" section of the first article.

This trooper had been found that he had been making death threats towards her father and family. He even tasered his own 10 year old stepson. Where was his boss, Monegan!?

Well the one leading this supposed finding is Hollis French, a Democrat. Please feel free to download the PDF on that article page, then tell him how pleased you are about him taking his time to persue this matter. Especially when a lot of focus is on Obama and his ties to ACORN.

[River]

Supposedly they found nothing unlawful that Palin did but she did abuse her power according to the original documentation. Which of course means, we didn't find anything to charge Palin on but we want to find something bad to say about her conduct. It is funny how CNN used to have both points, until they stuck with the negative headline, but now everybody is leading with the negative accusation. And the reason why they claimed she abused her power? Because she fired him because of personal and family reasons as part of it.

Obviously to some the personal may not be allowed into politics, including the tasering of your stepson. What is also funny is the fact that Hollis French and another were shown in a photo at an Obama rally in Alaska. Perhaps they hoped for something and got raw garbage.

[TommyPman]

The report makes no sense what so ever.

Abuse by it's very definition is an active venture, if anything Governor Palin was passive in this matter. The person who was active in the matter was Todd Palin, who as a private citezen was well with in his first amendment rights to adress grievences with the government.

If Sarah had acted in her capacity as Governor, to force Todd to stop asking about Wooten, that would have been abuse of power.

It seems as if the people who made this ruling should look at a little thing lnown as the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights for the United States Constitution

[politicalboy]

Troopegate is a joke, it is straws the libs are grasping a hold of, tommorrow they will find another straw.

[MathGirl]

Hmmmm. So, the guy did bad things that should have gotten him fired, including threats against her family, so she leaned on the people who were supposed to be doing their jobs and getting rid of him...she abused her power, how? Wouldn't any of us done the same thing? Duh!

[X1776kRumor]

Originally Posted by MathGirl

Hmmmm. So, the guy did bad things that should have gotten him fired, including threats against her family, so she leaned on the people who were supposed to be doing their jobs and getting rid of him...

You hit on one of the things that has always bothered me about this entire matter. If the administrative people under Gov. Palin are failing to do their jobs of protecting the citizens of Alaska from a rogue trooper who has threatened murder, broken numerous laws, and abused his state sanctioned legal authority - then Gov. Palin had a duty to the people who elected her to remove the administrative people who failed in their duties to the state of Alasaka. In this case you had a administrative person protecting a rouge tropper from prosecution of illegal activities that would have landed a plain citzen in front of a judge multiple times, and ultimately behind bars.
In short, Gov. Palin would have be remiss in her duties had she done nothing.

[X1776kRumor]

Originally Posted by andophiroxia

I can't find any conclusive evidence so far to determine any guilt.

Perusual, the MSM has run the story with bogus / misleading headlines; instead of reporting the fact they did NOT find Gov. Palin had broken any laws or abused her powers.
This or something similar should be the _____ headline run by any of the MSM press: "'Gov. Palin was cleared of the allegation of an improper firing, which is what this investigation was approved to look into,'"

[Fuzzball]

CCCCCan't we all just...ggggget along???

Oh, Wait, Gov. Palin didn't have liberal videotape of this piece of dung trooper tasering a 10 year old, so the Rodney King defense won't work...

Well, that and She's not a liberal..which negates any defense in the eyes of the lunatic left.

[TommyPman]

Anybody else find it iromic that liberals, who are always the first to trash police officers, seem to look the other way when it comes to Wooten and Monnegan who actually were dirty cops?

[andophiroxia]

Now, now, Tommy Pman...

Monnegan wasn't dirty, but he certainly was LAZY.

I'm just joking, I do happen to find that very ironic though since you've brought it up.