A separate legislative investigation recently concluded that Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, abused her office by allowing her husband and staffers to pressure the public safety commissioner to fire a state trooper who went through a nasty divorce from Palin’s sister.

Palin fired Walter Monegan, but denies his dismissal was related to the trooper.

Alaska Personnel Board investigations are normally secret, but the three-member board decided to release this report, citing public interest in the matter given Palin’s status as a candidate for national office. Election Day is Tuesday.

Palin had earlier waived her privacy rights, but others in her administration did not and Petumenos sought to keep the matter from playing out in the media.

Petumenos said documents to be released Monday would not include transcripts of separate depositions given by Palin and her husband, Todd.

That deposition was the only one given by Sarah Palin. She was not subpoenaed to answer questions in the Legislature’s investigation, though her husband, Todd, gave an affidavit in that probe.

Palin initially said she would cooperate with the Legislature’s probe. But after she became John McCain’s running mate, she said the investigation had become too partisan and filed an ethics grievance against herself with the personnel board.

Telephone messages left with state Sens. Hollis French, who led the legislative investigation, and Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of the Legislative Council, were not immediately returned.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin testified before an independent investigator Friday about allegations she abused her powers during a long-running personnel controversy that has now distracted from her Republican vice presidential campaign.

Palin waved but did not speak to reporters when she arrived at a Missouri hotel for her deposition, scheduled to last two hours before a lawyer from the Alaska Personnel Board. The board is investigating whether Palin abused her powers by firing her public safety commissioner.

The commissioner claims he was dismissed because he refused to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law, a state trooper involved in a messy divorce from Palin’s sister. The scandal, known as “Troopergate,” took on national significance after John McCain selected Palin as his running mate.

“She’s been looking forward to this day,” Palin’s attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said Friday. “She would like to tell her story and she’d like people to know the truth.”

A legislative investigation found that Palin had every right to fire the commissioner, Walter Monegan. But the report found that Palin violated state ethics laws by trying to get her former family member kicked off the force.

Palin and her husband, Todd, say the trooper, Mike Wooten, was unstable and had made threats against their family. Wooten had also used an electric stun gun on his stepson.

“I make no apologies for wanting to protect my family and wanting to publicize the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge,” Todd Palin said in an affidavit submitted to legislative investigators.

Sarah Palin was not subpoenaed in that investigation. Friday’s testimony before independent investigator Timothy Petumenos was the first time she spoke at length or under oath about the controversy. Palin began testifying around 4 p.m., McCain campaign spokesman Taylor Griffin said. Palin’s husband, Todd, was scheduled to testify before she did.

Although the legislative report issued a stinging rebuke of Palin’s conduct, it carried no penalty. It’s up to the personnel board to decide whether Palin violated the law. She filed a complaint against herself to launch the investigation after accusing the legislative inquiry of becoming partisan. Unlike the Legislature, the personnel board is run by officials that Palin can fire.

“Gov. Palin looks forward to meeting with Mr. Petumenos today and hopes that this investigation will provide the public with the facts in this matter,” McCain-Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said.

Whether Palin’s testimony becomes public remains uncertain. Personnel investigations are normally secret and, though Palin has waived her privacy rights, others in her administration have not and Petumenos has sought to keep the matter from playing out in the media.

Van Flein said Palin would like to release a transcript of her deposition. But producing one typically takes days and it’s unknown whether Petumenos will allow it.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose reformer image took a hit in a report concluding she abused her powers to settle a family score, has skirted state ethics rules before for personal benefit and used her office to help friends and supporters, according to an Associated Press review of records.

Palin’s first try at statewide office, after six years as mayor of Wasilla, was an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 2002. To raise money, she improperly used her City Hall office and equipment, city records show. A year later she would make headlines by blasting a fellow Republican for, among other things, improperly using his government position to boost his campaign.

Then, in 2006, Palin won the governor’s race with a vow to reform state ethics. But in less than two years, she has repeatedly taken actions that violated her own stated standards for ethical behavior _ if not state law. In the process, the Republican vice presidential nominee has become much like the old-school politicians she attacked during her rise to power.

Some examples:

_She pummeled opponents for giving oil companies and other businesses too much control of state government. Yet she appointed the founder of an engineering firm that received $6.8 million in state business as head of the transportation department.

_She has accepted dozens of gifts worth tens of thousands of dollars since taking office, including two free trips last year that she failed to report on disclosure forms, despite criticizing state legislators for the gifts they take.

_She is under another investigation, accused of misusing her office to campaign against a voter referendum calling for tighter mining regulations. Her husband, Todd, has accepted free trips from a mining company to look at their proposed new site.

_Another ethics complaint, unresolved, accuses her staff of finding a state job for a friend and campaign contributor.

Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded Friday. The politically charged inquiry imperiled her reputation as a reformer on John McCain’s Republican ticket.

Investigator Stephen Branchflower, in a report by a bipartisan panel that investigated the matter, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

The inquiry looked into her dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan, who said he lost his job because he resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.

The report found that Palin let the family grudge influence her decision-making even if it was not the sole reason Monegan was dismissed. “I feel vindicated,” Monegan said. “It sounds like they’ve validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I’m not totally out in left field.”

Branchflower said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

“I disagree,” said Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein. “In order to violate the ethics law, there has to be some personal gain, usually financial. Mr. Branchflower has failed to identify any financial gain.”

The statute says “any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that (public) trust.”

Palin and McCain’s supporters had hoped the inquiry’s finding would be delayed until after the presidential election to spare her any embarrassment and to put aside an enduring distraction as she campaigns as McCain’s running mate in an uphill contest against Democrat Barack Obama.

But the panel of lawmakers voted to release the report, although not without dissension. There was no immediate vote on whether to endorse its findings.

“I think there are some problems in this report,” said Republican state Sen. Gary Stevens, a member of the panel. “I would encourage people to be very cautious, to look at this with a jaundiced eye.”

The nearly 300-page report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation.

The investigation revealed that Palin’s husband, Todd, has extraordinary access to the governor’s office and her closest advisers. He used that access to try to get trooper Mike Wooten fired, the report found.

Branchflower faulted Sarah Palin for taking no action to stop that. He also noted there is evidence the governor herself participated in the effort.

Wooten had been in hot water before Palin became governor over allegations that he illegally shot a moose, drank beer in a patrol car and used a Taser on his stepson.

In proceedings revealed by the report, former Alaska State Trooper Col. Julia Grimes told investigators that Sarah Palin called her in late 2005 to discuss why Wooten hadn’t been fired, and Grimes told her the inquiry was confidential by law.

“Her questions were how can a trooper who behaves this way still be working,” Grimes said. “I asked her to please trust me, that because I can’t tell her details I would ask her to please trust me that I would take the appropriate action if and when I knew what the findings were. … I couldn’t have another conversation with her about it because, again, it’s protected by law.”

Grimes said Todd Palin also contacted her by telephone in late 2005 to discuss the confidential investigation of Wooten.

Wooten’s disciplinary case was settled in September 2006 — months before Palin was elected governor — and he was allowed to continue working as a trooper.

After Palin’s election, her new public safety commissioner, Monegan, said he was summoned to the governor’s office to meet Todd Palin, who said Wooten’s punishment had been merely a “slap on the wrist.” Monegan said he understood the Palins wanted Wooten fired. “I had this kind of ominous feeling that I may not be long for this job if I didn’t somehow respond accordingly,” Monegan told the investigator.

For months afterward, Todd Palin filed complaints about Wooten, saying he was seen riding a snowmobile after he had filed a worker’s compensation claim and was seen dropping off his children at school in his patrol car. Monegan said Wooten’s doctor had authorized the snowmobile trip and his supervisor had approved his use of the patrol car. Monegan said Alaska’s attorney general later called him to inquire about Wooten, and Monegan told him they shouldn’t be discussing the subject.

“This was an issue that apparently wasn’t going to go away, that there were certainly frustrations,” Monegan said. “To say that (Sarah Palin) was focused on this I think would be accurate.”

Troopergate

OK Long story short. Sarah Palin had a sister, here sister married a cop. They had a bitter divorce. Sarah Palin used her power as governor to put pressure on officials to have her brother in law fired from his position as state trooper. Then when they asked her about it she lied. But they had a tape recorded conversation of her surrogate trying to pressure an official to fire her brother in law so she admitted she did.

Salin is showing that she is a classic Bush Republican abusing power for personal vendettas than lying about it(Valerie Plame, fired DOJ officials). Is it even a scandal that a Republican is crooked anymore or is it just expected.

The national media hasn’t been covering this but Alaska’s own KTVA has. They had a poll of all viewers on whether Salin was telling the truth about Troopergate and 85% of all the people thought she was lying here’s some good stuff on the scandal from KTVA.

Listen to a Salin Surrogate Put Pressure on an Official to Fire Wooten (gets juicy 7 minutes in)

Monegan says Palin administration and first gentleman used governor’s office to pressure firing first family’s former brother-in-law

Investigation to begin into whether Governor Sarah Palin abused her power in firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan

Governor and staff’s latest explanations leave more questions

Troopergate Footage

TAGS abuse of power, brother in law, divorce, Elections, fired trooper, frank bailey, john mccain, lie, lied, michael wooten, sarah palin, todd palin, troopergate