Politics | 10/10/2008 8:22 am
McCain Campaign Releases Report on Palin's 'Troopergate' Problem

McCain-Palin campaign officials have released their own report on the Sarah Palin "Troopergate" controversy, saying she is cleared of any wrongdoing.
Sen. John McCain’s running mate in the race against Barack Obama is the subject of an Alaska State Legislature investigation into whether she abused her power as governor by firing her public safety commissioner for resisting pressure from her husband and others to fire her former brother-in-law, Mike Wooten.
AP reports that the release of the report came hours after the state Supreme Court refused to halt the ethics investigation. Alaska state lawmakers were expected to release their own findings Friday after a probe that began before Palin was chosen as McCain’s running mate.
Lawmakers planned to vote to release the estimated 300-page report and some of the 1,000 or more pages of supporting documents in the case. The panel could recommend that the case be closed, that another committee continue to investigate, or that the matter be referred to criminal investigators.
Campaign officials have yet to see that report but they argue that the investigation has falsely portrayed a legitimate policy dispute between a governor and her commissioner, Walter Monegan, as something inappropriate.
"The following document will prove Walt Monegan’s dismissal was a result of his insubordination and budgetary clashes with Governor Palin and her administration," campaign officials wrote. "Trooper Wooten is a separate issue."
"I just hope that the truth is figured out," Monegan told the Associated Press. "That the governor did want me to fire him, and I chose to not. You just can’t walk up to someone and say, ‘I fire you.’ He didn’t do anything under my watch to result in termination."
Palin’s critics say that shows she used her office to settle family affairs.
The New York Times says an examination of the case, based on interviews with Monegan and several top aides, indicates that Palin and her husband, Todd, along with other officials in her administration, indirectly pressed Monegan and his staff to get rid of Wooten off the force more strongly than has been previously reported.
"To all of us, it was a campaign to get rid of him as a trooper and, at the very least, to smear the guy and give him a desk job somewhere," said Kim Peterson, Monegan’s special assistant.






















17 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment