Palin faces reprimand after failing to cooperate in Troopergate inquiry

US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin faces possible censure today
with the conclusion of an investigation into allegations that she
committed a serious abuse of power by sacking the head of the Alaskan
police force when he refused to become involved in a family feud.

Republicans last night failed in suppressing the report after Alaska's
supreme court refused to shut down the investigation. Palin is expected
to be criticised for failing to cooperate with the inquiry into the
Troopergate affair, so called because she is alleged to have dismissed
the state's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, after he refused
to sack her former brother-in-law, a state trooper. It is unclear
whether the investigation will find that Palin, the governor of Alaska,
is guilty of firing Monegan because he refused to move against the
trooper, Mike Wooten, or whether it will accept her argument that she
had other reasons to dismiss him.

Palin's husband, Todd, attempted to shoulder much of the blame for the
pressure Monegan faced after refusing to fire Wooten; in a statement to
the investigation on Wednesday he said: "I make no apologies for wanting
to protect my family and wanting to publicise the injustice of a violent
trooper keeping his badge."

He said he had never instructed Monegan to sack Wooten, but his
statement, made public by his lawyer, conceded: "We had a lot of
conversations about a guy who threatened my family and verbally
assaulted my daughter." His wife, he said, had finally told him to "drop
it".

Stephen Branchflower, a former prosecutor who is conducting the
investigation on behalf of the Alaskan state legislature, is known to
have examined emails from Mrs Palin to Monegan, including one
complaining that "this trooper is still out on the street, in fact he's
been promoted".

Some Palin aides are also expected to face censure. They appear to have
been unaware that Monegan's Department of Public Safety (DPS) routinely
recorded incoming telephone calls, with the result that Branchflower was
able to obtain recordings of a number of conversations.

He is also thought to have obtained details of emails sent between
Palin, her husband and a number of senior officials in her administration.

The investigation has focused on events leading up to Monegan's sacking
last July. Wooten and the governor's younger sister, Molly McCann, had
been through an acrimonious divorce and child custody dispute, during
which members of Palin's family had accused him of a range of crimes and
disciplinary offences. In March 2006 Wooten was found guilty of a number
of offences, including threatening behaviour and shooting his stepson
with a Taser stun-gun on a low power setting. He was briefly suspended
and given a final written warning, but after Palin came into office nine
months later, her aides are alleged to have repeatedly urged Monegan to
reopen the case. Monegan says his refusal to do so cost him his job.

Branchflower will present his conclusions today at a meeting of Alaskan
state senators and representatives.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008...rahpalin/print