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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin got the favorable ruling she hoped for when she referred the “Troopergate” controversy to the state personnel board whose three members are gubernatorial appointees. Their investigator rejected the findings of an earlier legislative inquiry that Palin had abused her power.

On Monday, one day before the U.S. presidential election, the Republican-controlled board released the findings of its independent counsel, Timothy Petumenos, that Palin did not violate state ethics laws by sanctioning a campaign to pressure subordinates to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper.

The report contradicted the findings of an investigation by an independent counsel for Alaska’s bipartisan Legislative Council that concluded on Oct. 10 that Palin had abused her power and violated state ethics law by collaborating with her husband, Todd, and senior staff to get her ex-brother-in-law fired.

That investigation began in July after Palin fired the state’s Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who then complained that his dismissal stemmed from his refusal to fire Trooper Mike Wooten, who was caught up in a bitter divorce and custody fight with Palin’s sister.

Palin initially supported the Legislative Council’s investigation, headed for former prosecutor Steve Branchflower, but turned against it after she was picked by John McCain as his vice presidential running mate in late August. The McCain campaign began attacking the council’s probe as a Democratic witch hunt.

On Sept. 2, on the eve of her Republican National Convention acceptance speech, Palin took the unusual move of filing an ethics complaint against herself with the personnel board, whose members are appointed by the governor. Members include two appointed by her Republican predecessor, Frank Murkowski, and one by Palin.

Palin, her husband and several senior aides balked at giving depositions to the Legislative Council’s inquiry, but Palin gave a deposition to the personnel board’s investigator, Petumenos, on Oct. 24 in St. Louis.

Petumenos’s findings – both their speed and content – stunned some Alaska lawmakers who had been involved in the “Troopergate” controversy.

Sen. Kim Elton, Democratic chairman of the state’s Legislative Council, said he was “surprised” by Petumenos’ conclusion, adding: “I think the ethics act is very clear and that Mr. Branchflower strung together a series of events that made it clear there was not only smoke but fire.”

Rep. Les Gara, another Democrat, said the facts detailed in Branchflower’s report remain “undisputed,” adding: “It’s clear there was wrongdoing by the governor.”

Defending Palin

Beyond declaring there was nothing improper about Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan, Petumenos criticized the Branchflower report for its interpretation of the state ethics law.

“The Branchflower Report ... states that violation of the scope of code provision may be based on the governor's inaction as opposed to the governor's affirmative acts,” Petumenos wrote in his 56-page report.

“But ... the Ethics Act does not require a person subject to its provisions to police the behavior of third parties who are not subject to its provisions. To find that the Governor violated the Ethics Act by failing to control her husband's behavior would require one to add language to the Ethics Act that does not exist.”

Petumenos said that in her deposition, Palin categorically denied that she had conversations with Monegan about firing her ex-brother-in-law, putting her in contradiction with Monegan, a former Anchorage police chief.

On Monday, Monegan told the New York Times that “the conversations absolutely did take place. I’ve been a police officer for some 35 years. Aren’t I supposed to tell the truth? And in this case I did, under oath to both investigators.”

“It’s not only me,” Monegan added. “There were senior members of the department of public safety who got the calls, felt the pressure and knew exactly what was going on. I will always feel that there were conversations and e-mails that were intended to inappropriately use an official government position to settle a family matter.”

Petumenos also rejected a complaint that Monegan filed with the personnel board against Palin last month, in which he asked for a hearing to address harm to his reputation caused by the McCain campaign's disparaging public statements about his work ethic.

"There is no legal basis or jurisdiction for conducting a ‘Due Process Hearing to Address Reputational Harm’ as requested by former Commissioner Walter Monegan," Petumenos said.

Monegan has indicated that he would sue Palin if he was not granted a hearing to address his grievances.

Petumenos, who is a Democrat, also concluded that "there is no basis upon which to refer the conduct of Gov. Palin to any law enforcement agency in connection with this matter because Gov. Palin did not commit the offenses of Interference with Official Proceedings or Official Misconduct."

He added that “there is no probable cause to believe that any other official of state government violated any substantive provision of the Ethics Act.”

Contradictory Findings

Branchflower based his Oct. 10 report on more than 1,000 pages of documents and interviews with more than a dozen state and law enforcement officials. He determined that the effort to oust Wooten was spearheaded by Todd Palin, who drew support in his anti-Wooten campaign from the governor.

Gov. 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,” Branchflower found.

"The evidence supports the conclusion that Gov. Palin, at the least, engaged in 'official action' by her inaction, if not her active participation or assistance to her husband, to get trooper Wooten fired.”

Branchflower said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which says "each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust," by sanctioning a campaign authorizing her husband and aides to try and fire Wooten.
 
Furthermore, the existing public record shows that Sarah Palin was deeply involved in the dispute with Wooten before she became governor. She filed several complaints against her ex-brother-in-law over three years alleging he engaged in illegal behavior while on duty and had threatened her family.

Branchflower’s report said that after Palin was sworn in as governor she permitted her husband, Todd, to use the resources of her office to continue this effort to get Wooten fired and that she failed in "her authority and power to require Mr. Palin to cease contacting subordinates.”

On Monday, Rep. Gara said he would continue to press Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg to appoint an independent counsel to probe whether operatives in McCain’s presidential campaign broke Alaska’s criminal witness-tampering laws.

Gara alleges that McCain’s campaign staffers influenced witnesses close to Palin to get them to withhold cooperation from Branchflower’s probe.

“I am concerned that the state’s criminal witness-tampering laws have been broken by certain staff for Sen. McCain’s presidential campaign,” Gara wrote in a letter to Colberg.

Gara said the McCain staff arrived in Alaska after Palin was picked as McCain’s running mate on Aug. 29 and spent the next month and a half trying “to stall or stop” the investigation by getting several senior Palin aides and her husband Todd to balk at giving depositions.

Gara noted that Palin’s aides had agreed in July to be deposed about the ”Troopergate” case. However, after Palin’s selection as the GOP vice presidential nominee, the aides reneged.

Colberg, a close Palin ally, earlier spearheaded a failed effort by the Palin administration to get the state courts to quash subpoenas issued to members of Palin’s administration during the investigation. He was criticized in Branchflower’s report for withholding e-mails from the investigation.

Colberg advised Gara to bring his concerns to the state personnel board, and ask it to expand Petumenos’s probe.

Last Wednesday, Petumenos wrote Gara that the personnel board investigation “will not address the circumstances under which witnesses in the parallel legislative investigation came to testify or not testify.”

“I have explained this to the Attorney General who has authorized me to tell you that your concerns should be brought back to the State of Alaska Department of Law,” Petumenos wrote in an Oct. 28 letter to Gara.

On Friday, Gara sent Colberg a letter saying Petumenos “has placed the ball back in your court.”

The contradictory sworn testimony by Gov. Palin, former Commissioner Monegan and others also raise possible questions of false statements or perjury, if Alaskan law-enforcement authorities should decide to investigate further.

Jason Leopold has launched a new Web site, The Public Record, at www.pubrecord.org.

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