Troopergate Report: Palin abused her power

A legislative investigation has concluded that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister, or by failing to prevent her husband Todd from doing so.

The report by investigator independent investigator Steve Branchflower was made public late this afternoon by a bipartisan 12-0 vote of the Legislative Council, which authorized the investigation back in July.

Branchflower, in a report to the Legislative Council, found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

How it all started

On the morning of July 17, we broke the story about the connection of Department of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan's firing and the relentless personal vendetta that Governor Sarah Palin and her husband were waging against their former brother in law and Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten.

In the blog posting, we asserted that Monegan was fired for not only disagreeing with the governor over budget cuts she wanted to make to an already strapped State Trooper force, but because Monegan consistently refused to cave into pressure to fire Palin's former brother in law.

Wooten had been in a nasty custody battle with Palin's sister, Molly McCann, and the obsession with trying to get Wooten fired was so that he'd lose his job and be unable to pay child support and this would have to give up the couples children.

Almost three months to the day later, the Alaska Legislature voted unanimously to release a special investigators report that found Governor Palin unlawfully abused her power by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper

The 253 page report with 1,000 pages of back up material will be our weekend homework. Check back later this weekend for more in depth reporting on the findings.

Meanwhile, we link the blog that broke the story last July as well as a follow up blog, questioning the power Todd Palin was allowed to wield in the governor's office.

In a word: VINDICATED