Report clears Palin in ethics probe

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin violated no ethics laws as Alaska's governor when she fired the state's public safety commissioner, the state personnel board concluded in a report released on the eve of the election.

An earlier, separate investigation by Alaska's Legislature found that Palin had abused her office.

However, the personnel board's report released Monday said it found no "probable cause to believe that the governor, or any other state official, violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with these matters."

"Gov. Palin is pleased that the independent investigator for the Personnel Board has concluded that she acted properly in the reassignment of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan," her attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said in a statement.

Monegan said he felt pressure from Palin, her husband and her staff to fire a state trooper who had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin's sister. Palin denied the claim, and said Monegan was fired last July because she wanted the department to head in a new direction.

Monegan told The Associated Press he was "perplexed and disappointed" by the report. It was prepared by Timothy Petumenos, an independent investigator for the Alaska Personnel Board.

"It conflicts with the first investigation and then casts doubts on both of them. So, it doesn't really resolve anything," he said. "If it did, then I could walk away. It does seem to fly in the face of circumstantial evidence."

The separate investigation by the Legislative Council recently concluded that Palin abused her office by allowing her husband and staffers to pressure Monegan to fire the trooper, Mike Wooten. However, it upheld the firing because Monegan was an at-will employee.

Petumenos said his conclusions differ from the report by the legislative panel's investigator, former prosecutor Stephen Branchflower, because the earlier probe assumed facts without having all relevant data at hand. He said Branchflower used a wrong statute as the basis for his conclusions, misconstrued the available evidence and did not consider or obtain all the material evidence to reach a proper finding.

Petumenos said the personnel board's investigation included much more data, including additional e-mails from state personnel, including Palin. And while some of Palin's personal e-mails were obtained, he said, it was impossible to know if any had been deleted. The report recommends that the state address the issue of personal e-mail use to conduct state business.

"Also absent from the evidence reviewed is any assertion that the Governor directed anyone in the Department of Public Safety to terminate Trooper Wooten, or directed anyone on her staff to seek the termination of Trooper Wooten," the report said.

State Sen. Kim Elton, chairman of the Legislative Council that conducted the earlier investigation, said the Personnel Board report omitted a lot of context in the matter. The legislative investigation was valid, he said.

"I think we have two lawyers who reached different conclusions on the law," Elton said.

Alaska Personnel Board investigations are normally secret, but the three-member panel 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.