Alaska Legislators Release Troopergate Report, Conclude Palin Unlawfully Abused Power

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Members of the bipartisan Alaska Legislative Council have voted 12-0 with 2 absent to release investigator Steve Branchflower's "Troopergate" report submitted Friday, concluding that Governor Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister.

The report found that Palin violated the state's executive branch ethics act, which says that "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." The report also found that state public safety commissioner Walt Monegan's dismissal by Palin was attributable at least in part to Monegan's refusal to fire Palin's former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten, from the Alaska state police. The report states that "Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda ... to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired." In addition, Branchflower determined that Sarah and Todd Palins' claims of fear of Wooten "were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins' real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family related reasons." Finally, Branchflower's report states that the office of Palin's attorney general has failed to comply with an August 6 written request from Branchflower for information about the case in the form of e-mails. The full report is available at the Anchorage Daily News (see also Mudflats).

The McCain/Palin campaign has attempted by all means at its disposal to prevent the release of Branchflower's report, including a failed appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court. The campaign also tried to preempt the Alaska Legislative Council's finding by issuing its own report, which of course found Palin wholly innocent of any wrongdoing in the Troopergate affair.

The release of Branchflower's report follows close on the heels of news earlier Friday that a superior court judge in Anchorage had ordered the state of Alaska to preserve any government-related e-mails sent by Palin from private accounts. This ruling came as the result of a lawsuit against Palin by Anchorage resident Andree McLeod. "We shouldn't be in a position where public records have been lost because the governor didn't do what every other state employee knows to do, which is to use an official, secure state e-mail account to conduct state business...," McLeod told the Associated Press following the ruling, "...It's a dereliction of the governor and her duties."

I look forward to watching the fallout from this report and its effects on the McCain/Palin campaign in the coming days.