Palin Used Her Office to Pursue Private Feud

Late on Friday, October 10, 2008, a 263-page report released by Alaska’s Legislative Council, a bipartisan body of Alaska House and Senate members, found that Governor Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, abused the powers of her office by exerting pressure on subordinates to fire her former brother-in-law, a state trooper. The Legislature concluded that although Palin was within her rights to dismiss public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, the trooper’s boss, allowing and encouraging repeated attempts by her husband and subordinates to press him for the trooper’s firing were:

“…impermissable and 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 that displeasure.”

The report cited Palin for wrongfully allowing her husband, Todd, to use state resources as part of the effort to have the trooper fired, stating that Palin “knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissable pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda.” In conclusion, the report chastised Governor Palin for violating the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

The accusations were shrugged off by the McCain campaign, which continues to maintain that the allegations are not serious and that Palin is not guilty of any wrongdoing. However, they undermine the portrayal of Governor Palin as an ethics reformer and a maverick who fights for “hockey moms and Joe sixpacks,” the rationale offered for her selection as the nominee for Vice-President on the Republican ticket.

John Cyr, head of the union that represents state troopers, commented,”I would say a violation of the public trust strikes me as a relatively serious offense for a sitting governor, especially one who ran on truth, trust and transparency.”

Palin Fights Back

Sarah Palin shrugged off findings of the state inquiry at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Defiantly, she insisted that no-one had proved she had broken the law. “If you read the report,” she told her audience, “you will see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member.”

Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, said there was no evidence that she broke any ethics code. ”In order to violate the ethics law, there has to be some personal financial gain, and the report failed to identify any financial gain,” he said. However, the strong, damning verdict delivered by the investigator, Stephen Branchflower, a retired prosecutor appointed last July by a Rupublican-dominated committee of the Alaska state legislature, found that Palin breached the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act because her actions benefited her personally if not financially, and either cause is a violation of the public trust.

Under Alaskan law, it is the state personnel board, which is conducting its own inquiry, that will decide whether Palin violated state law. If she did, they must refer the matter to the Senate President for disciplinary action. Violations carry a fine of up to $5,000.

Investigator Branchfolwer also cited the office of the state’s attorney general, Talis Colberg, for failing to release information about the case from various email accounts. Palin is known to have used at least two personal emails, gov.palin@yahoo.com and gov.sarah@yahoo.com, to conduct official business. These accounts have now been shut down.

A freedom of information campaigner, Andree McLeod, has brought a case against Palin, forcing her and the attorney general to release the information held in these emails pertinent to Troopergate. They may surface in a court case scheduled for Friday, October 17, shedding more light on Troopergate and on Palin, the politician who would be a heartbeat away from the presidency if John McCain is elected President.