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Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions that Are Flatly False

October 12, 2008 6:56 PM

On Saturday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin twice spoke to reporters about the so-called "Troopergate" scandal and the investigative report on whether she had abused her power in trying to get her sister's ex-husband Mike Wooten fired as a state trooper, and for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan one year after she, her staffers, and her husband Todd began unsuccessfully pressuring Monegan to let Wooten go.

Palin spoke on the phone with Alaska reporters about the report. The McCain-Palin campaign only allowed one question per reporter. The journalists came from the Anchorage Daily News, KTVA-Channel 11 and KTUU-Channel 2. No follow-ups were allowed.

The call can be heard HERE.

"Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing," Palin said, "any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

That's just not the case.

One can make the argument, as Palin and her allies have tried to do, that this investigation -- launched by a bipartisan Republican-controlled legislative body -- was somehow a partisan Democratic witch hunt, but one cannot honestly make the argument that the report concluded that Palin was "cleared of any legal wrongdoing" or "any hint of unethical activity."

The investigator did conclude that Palin's firing of Monegan was within her power, that "although Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Trooper Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin's firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads."

But it finds that Palin "knowingly, as that term is defined in ... statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor's office and the resources of the Governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act..."

The report states: "I find that Governor Sarah Palin Abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act ... Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional...

"The evidence supports the conclusion that Governor Palin, at the least, engaged in 'official action' by her inaction if not her active participation or assistance to her husband in attempting to get Trooper Wooten fired [and there is evidence of her active participation.] She knowingly, as that term is defined in the above cited statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office and the resources of the Governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act...

"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda."

Read the report HERE.

Palin spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt explains that when Palin says she's been cleared of any legal or ethical violations, "She was referring to the conclusion of the report that found that she acted properly and lawfully with regard to reassigning Monegan, which was the original purpose of the investigation."

But Palin is seldom that specific.

When Palin first commented on the report she parsed.

Asked "Governor, did you abuse your power?" she said, "No, and if you read the report you'll see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member. You gotta read the report, sir."

It's true that there's nothing "unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member" in principle. And the report concluded that she had the power to fire Monegan.

But the report concluded that she had abused her power, and there was indeed something "unethical" about her behavior, insofar as it violated the state Ethics Act.

But now Palin has moved on from parsing to assertions that are not true.

"Governor," asked a reporter with the Anchorage Daily News, "finding Number One on the report was that you abused your power by violating state law. Do you think you did anything wrong at all in this Troopergate case?"

"Not at all and I’ll tell you, it, I think that you’re always going to ruffle feathers as you do what you believe is in the best interest of the people whom you are serving," Palin said. "In this case I knew that I had to have the right people in the right position at the right time in this cabinet to best serve Alaskans, and Walt Monegan was not the right person at the right time to meet the goals that we had set out in our administration. So no, not having done anything wrong, and again very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all."

Again, not true.

She was NOT cleared, certainly not of "unethical activity."

In Altoona, Pa., at the flagship Sheetz gas station, Palin was asked to elaborate about her assertion that there was nothing "unethical or unlawful that was done."

"I'm thankful that the report has shown that, that there was no illegal or unethical activity there in my choice to replace our commissioner, so, now we look forward to working with the personnel board that the entity that is charged with looking into any activity of a governor, the lieutenant governor, or an attorney general," Palin said.

That came closer to the truth. The report did in fact conclude that Palin had the power to fire Monegan.

"Governor, if I can follow up," a reporter said, "the report says that you did abuse your authority in trying to get Officer Wooten fired. How do you respond to that charge?"

"There was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired," Palin said.

If she was stating that as her opinion, fine, but if she was stating that as the conclusion of the report, that's false.

"In fact, remember, Officer Wooten is still an Alaska state trooper, which is up to the commissioner, top brass in the department of public safety to decide who is worthy of wearing a badge and carrying a gun in the state of Alaska," Palin said. "And if they think that Trooper Wooten is worthy of that, that's their decision. I don't micromanage my commissioners and ask them to hire or fire anyone, and thankfully the truth was revealed there in that report, that showed that there was no unlawful nor unethical activity on my part."

Again, not true.

-- jpt

UPDATE: McCain-Palin spox Taylor Griffin writes: "The investigation set out to determine whether Gov. Palin had acted properly in reassigning Walt Monegan, it concluded that she absolutely did.  The Legislative Council’s investigation offers an opinion based on a very tortured reading of the Ethics Act, but, as Legislative Council Chairman Kim Elton pointed out yesterday, it has no force in law. 

"Unable to find wrongdoing under the original investigation, Mr. Branchflower tried to stretch the Ethics Act to fit facts that are well beyond the scope of the law.  To say she is in violation because she did not stop Todd Palin from raising concerns with appropriate authorities about a rogue State Trooper who had threatened their family and abused the public trust  really defies commonsense and has no basis in the law.  Besides,  as Todd pointed out in his interrogatory responses, she did ask him to 'drop it.'

"Also, the Council made clear that the vote to make the report public was not an endorsement of its findings.  In fact, five members of the council spoke up to say they do not agree with the report’s findings.  The lengths that were taken to stretch the scope of the investigation to find something damaging to say, when the facts bore out that the Governor acted appropriately, show that our concerns about the politicization of this investigation were entirely justified.

"Trooper Wooten has a history of violent and intimidating behavior and threatened the life of Sarah Palin’s father.  As anyone would, the Palins raised these serious concerns to the proper authorities.  As Todd Palin said in his interrogatory responses, 'I make no apologies for wanting to protect my family and wanting to publicize the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge and abusing the workers’ compensation system.'"

October 12, 2008 in 2008: Republicans | Permalink | Share | User Comments (943)

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Ryan C...LOL concerned now actually cares about reall issues!

For weeks, all concerned wanted to talk about is bs like Ayers or ACORN.

Now that Palin has been nailed by a report about abusing her power and then nailed about lying about said report, concerned wants to talk about a narrow slice of foreign policy.

Could Palin even find Iran on a map?


ROTFLMAO....She'd be lucky to find the state she lives in!! Why do you think they fly her everywhere?

Posted by: PasteEater | Oct 15, 2008 2:58:04 PM

Where did the actual Video go???? It is now somehow removed. It you watched it, you can see she clearly was rattled, rambling & stuttering when saying she is glad she was found innocent. Wouldn't take a body langage expert to see how uncomfortable she was. Clearly it was because she knew she was lying through her teeth. Seeing the Video is believing, Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire. Basically her tactics are tell the people whatever you want, some are bound to believe you!

Posted by: Mary | Oct 14, 2008 8:17:43 PM

I can't forget how Sarah Palin kept repeating the stories about her opposition to the "bridge to nowhere"
and selling her private jet plane on EBay
long after these tales were shown to be false.

It was this delusional behavior that convinced me that she is a bald faced liar.

Posted by: Syd | Oct 14, 2008 6:14:18 PM

Report: The sky is actually blue, not red.
Palin: Did you read the report, it said the sky was red. You need to read the report (waving and walking away winking and smiling).

This DOES matter greatly when it comes to who should be allowed into a leadership role for our country. Palin is not it. In fact, Palin won't win re-election in her own state now. Her favorability ratings have dropped DRAMATICALLY since people started to pay attention to the abuses and lies she has been routinely doing.
Palin will be the reason the Republican GOP is in shambles for the next decade.

Posted by: Mark | Oct 14, 2008 3:52:52 PM

A couple of comments:

1. Why does Obama even come up in this discussion? Why are Americans seemingly unable to keep issues separate? The article (well, editorial) is about Palin, nothing else. I think the posters should restrict themselves to the same issue: Is she lying, or is she not?

2. Why is the reporter so biased? Look at his language. Why is no one calling him on it?

Posted by: Kyle Rayner | Oct 14, 2008 12:08:07 PM

Let's see Palin a person in denial...Damn, Obama has been a person in denial all through his campaign.

Posted by: Michael M Bergen | Oct 14, 2008 6:39:40 AM

Can one still be deemed not telling the truth when they are in a state of denial? :-)

Posted by: Ed G | Oct 14, 2008 5:19:29 AM

Karolyn, Sarah Palin is neither straight talking (read her interview transcripts) nor honest (she is lying about this very report).

Finding number one in the reports states “…Governor Sarah Palin Abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.”

Palin has not yet been chastised. The legislature has no authority to take action against her. It is the state personnel board that can sanction or impose fines. The personnel board is conducting a separate investigation.

Posted by: Open Mike | Oct 14, 2008 3:09:06 AM

this abuse by Wooten was happening many years ago, why didn't Palin do something about it to protect her nephew and sister then?

and so maybe she did try to get Wooten off the force because he was a "bad cop", we could all probably understand that, but she's not confessing/admitting to that. she did abuse her power and she's playing politics here, we all know that. she's just like any other politician, nothing new or refreshing about her.

Posted by: pikake | Oct 14, 2008 12:52:05 AM

I thought you've been saying Obama is secretly a "Muslin" radical bent on the overthrow of the US. Now you're saying Iran is sabotaging his campaign and thus sabotaging their own secret plot?
Those crafty A-rabs are now using double-double reverse inverse psychology?
Here is a simpler concept.
Palin is a liar. Period.
McCain is a poor judge of character. Period.

Posted by: WilliamBudd | Oct 14, 2008 12:07:46 AM

Governor Palin did nothing wrong. Probably her only mistake was allowing her husband to use her office. She offered Monegan another job and he refused it. She fired him. That is her perogative as the chief executive in charge. She broke no laws - and the investigator said as much. She was chastised so let it go.

McCain-Palin may not win the election - thanks to the media, probably won't. But Governor Palin has a very bright political future. Would we be so fortunate to have more straight talking, honest politicians such as she.

Posted by: Karolyn | Oct 13, 2008 11:35:49 PM

Wow...I wonder how she will spin a sold "thumpin" on Nov. 4

Posted by: Andrew | Oct 13, 2008 10:34:52 PM

and the reason we need 12 adults to "decide" this is an ethics violation is ....??

Posted by: RJR | Oct 13, 2008 9:59:34 PM

If the trooper was guilty of the charges the Palin's allege, why did they not file proper, formal complaints to the police department in the jurisdiction of the alleged actions by him?

Posted by: Iguana | Oct 13, 2008 8:45:39 PM

And what would Obama do if it were his child who was tazered by a cop? What would any of you do if it were your own child? We teach our children the police force is there to help us, not harm or threaten us. Do you honestly belive that America is a better country when these violent cops (which we see on the news regularly) are allowed to continue to "serve and protect" the public?

Posted by: Just Curious | Oct 13, 2008 7:04:14 PM

Palin isn't just unqualified- she's completely ridiculous. And she's a liar, and not even a good one.

Those of you who implausibly claim, based on nothing, that she is "better than Obama" are probably that same 20% who still think Bush is doing a good job. And you must be as stupid as Palin if you think that she is even remotely qualified to be president.

Barack Obama is, among other things, a very smart man. He was the editor of the Harvard Law Review, a very elite position at one of the two or three best law schools in the country. And this shouldn't need to be said, but THIS IS A GOOD THING. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, can't hardly speak in complete sentences, is afraid to talk to the media and answer OUR questions, and sneers at the majority who disagree with her.

And those of you like "Barry" who still say that she's somehow better than Obama- uh, good luck making that argument.

Posted by: mike kaplan | Oct 13, 2008 6:46:55 PM

CharlieS wrote - "Thanks for calling a lie a lie."

But he didn't. He came as lose as any repoerter ever does, and it's clear from the article that Palin is lying, but the media is still shy about actually using the L-word, instead dancing around it for paragraph after paragraph. Why is that? I'm not accusing anyone of anything, I'm really genuinely curious- it's a weird taboo. Palin's lying. Just say it.

Posted by: Jones | Oct 13, 2008 5:43:13 PM

...and she is still a better choice than Obama...

Posted by: Barry | Oct 13, 2008 5:30:25 PM

I second that. Great post Ruth T.

Posted by: Marsha McClelland | Oct 13, 2008 5:03:00 PM

Palin will get her chance to speak in court. She is being sued for using Yahoo to avoid the Freedom of Information act, for making her employees use Yahoo to avoid the freedom of information act, which is both immoral and illegal, since she is making others break the law or risk her wrath and firing, for using a non-secure system and for using a system with no backup. She is crooked, and mean. "viper" is closer than pit-bull.

Posted by: Bruce Becker | Oct 13, 2008 4:59:36 PM

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