Sarah Palin's lies when it comes to what the Troopergate probe found -- i.e. her contention that the report said she did nothing unethical when, in fact, it found that she VIOLATED THE STATE'S ETHICS LAW -- are pretty brazen. At least the Bush administration tried to muddy the waters of their scandals a little bit. But not Palin; she's content with just lying about objective facts and findings. Can we really afford someone like this a heartbeat away? I'm with Cafferty: This woman scares the hell out of me.

"Sarah Palin would love nothing more than to superficially answer all of our shouted questions, but she doesn't have time."

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The Alaska Legislature-commissioned investigation has found her guilty of abusing her power to fire Walt Monegan.

A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state's public safety commissioner. The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn't the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely was a contributing factor.

The Republican vice presidential nominee has been accused of firing a commissioner to settle a family dispute. Palin supporters have called the investigation politically motivated.

Monegan says he was dismissed as retribution for resisting pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.

A copy of the report here.
More info as it develops.

On the other side of the Atlantic, tomorrows news stories are already out by early evening in the U.S. And Friday's papers are talking about a release of documents about Troopergate that purportedly show Sarah Palin herself wasn't involved in continual pressure on Alaska's public safety commissioner Walter Monegan to fire Palin's former brother-in-law, Alaska State Trooper Mike Wooten. But her husband, First Dude Todd Palin, hounded police chiefs to get Wooten fired, according to the documents.

Rupert Murdoch's flagship tabloid, The Sun, with over 6 million readers daily, has the story, and so too (in more unflattering detail) does ITN News:

A report on the case, which made international headlines after Mrs Palin's surprise selection as the Republican vice presidential nominee, will be released on Friday.

It could reveal the extent of the Alaska governor's husband's involvement in her administration.

Affidavits filed with investigators suggest Mrs Palin was not involved while her husband Todd repeatedly met with her aides about family affairs.

Continue reading »

Ruh roh.

Seven Alaska state employees have reversed course and agreed to testify in an abuse-of-power investigation against Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.[..]

Lawmakers subpoenaed seven state employees to testify in the inquiry but they challenged those subpoenas. A judge rejected that challenge last week. Because of that ruling, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg says the employees have decide to testify.

AP is reporting that Todd Palin, while still not agreeing to testify under oath, has agreed to speak to investigator Timothy Petumenos. Another investigation into Troopergate (launched by the Alaska Legislature) is scheduled to release their findings this Friday, unless successfully stayed by the McCain/Palin campaign.

  But he and Sarah have nothing to hide. I promise.

Yahoo!

The governor's husband, however, refuses to answer questions to a panel that he believes is politically motivated, according to campaign officials for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Palin.

"The objections boil down to the fact that the legislative council investigation is no longer a legitimate investigation because it has been subjected to complete partisanship," campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said.

Todd Palin could be found in contempt of the legislature for failing to comply, but the whole body would have to be in session to do so, and it is not scheduled to reconvene until January.

Josh makes a great point:

Who would you expect to announce that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin won't cooperate with the Alaska Legislature's probe into whether she abused the power of her office in Trooper-Gate?

Not Palin herself. Nor the spokesperson for the Governor's Office. Nor the lawyer the state is paying to represent her in her official capacity in the case. Instead, that announcement was made today by a spokesperson for John McCain's presidential campaign.

Just keep that in mind as this case unfolds.

(h/t Cernig)

ABC investigative journalist Brian Ross digs into the Troopergate story and comes to one obvious conclusion: Palin clearly lied about her involvement.

The editorial board of the biggest newspaper in Alaska wants Sarah to stop stalling:

Gov. Sarah Palin is taking the wrong approach to Troopergate. She should be practicing the open and transparent, ethical and accountable government she promised when running for governor and boasts about now that she's on the national stage.

Instead, Gov. Palin has begun stonewalling the Legislature's attempt to get the bottom of allegations that she, her family or staff violated ethical or state personnel rules.

As a result, the Troopergate allegations hang over Palin's future and cloud her candidacy for vice president.

I've always been of the mind that, if you have nothing to hide, why not be entirely transparent and upfront with investigators? There is too much at stake here for Palin (and indeed the Republican party) for her to play this wrong.

Then again, the way she and her lawyers have acted up until this point signal that she has a good reason to stonewall. It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out.

   ABC News is reporting that the McCain campaign is using stall tactics in order to delay the release of the report, currently slated to be handed down at the end of October.

Is the McCain campaign afraid of an 'October surprise' involving vice-presidential pick Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska?

The Alaska state senator running an investigation of Gov. Palin says the McCain campaign is using stall tactics to prevent him from releasing his final report by Oct. 31, four days before the November election.

I don't know about you, but the number one quality I look for in my elected leaders is their ability to abuse power and obstruct investigations. It would be too much of a radical departure from the Bush years otherwise.

Palin's attorney has decided to pursue a rather bizarre line of defense, arguing against the probe on the following grounds:

"Our concern is that Hollis French [the Anchorage Democrat and former state prosecutor who is project director for the legislative investigation] turns into Ken Starr and uses public money to pursue a political vendetta rather than truly pursue an honest inquiry into an alleged ethics issue," Van Flein said in an interview.

You heard right: Palin's attorney is admitting that Ken Starr's investigation into former President Clinton wasn't an honest inquiry, but rather a politically-motivated vendetta. I certainly have sympathy for the victims of poltically-motivated vendettas, but in this case Sarah Palin isn't the victim; the upstanding public safety commissioner she fired, Walt Monegan, is.

Josh has a great breakdown of the scandal in case anyone needs refreshing.