Palin's abuse power to help sister.

From Judicial Watch blog in July 2008:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is being investigated for abruptly firing the state’s public safety commissioner because he wouldn’t get rid of a state trooper who had gone through a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister.
As the mayor of Wasilla, the Republican governor had written a letter of recommendation for her ex brother-in-law (Mike Wooten) to get the trooper job in 2000, but her sister went through a nasty divorce and custody battle in 2005 that some say led Palin to push for the trooper’s firing.

The governor’s sister, Molly McCann, continues to have a hostile relationship with her former husband and recently called 911 because he would not return their young children to her. The family’s dirty laundry was aired this month when, for no particular reason, Governor Palin fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
Palin said she got rid of Monegan because she wants the department to go in a new direction, but the fired commissioner says he got the boot because he wouldn’t fire the governor’s ex brother in law. In fact, Monegan said that Palin and her family have been pressuring him to fire the trooper since she took office in December 2006.

This week a bipartisan council of Alaska legislators ordered an independent investigation into the matter, which has become somewhat of a scandal in a state already plagued with public corruption at various levels of government.

Taxpayers will dish out $100,000 for the probe, which will hopefully expose any abuses of power or improper actions by members of the state’s executive branch.

Palin administration withheld emails to public in the case citing executive privilege:

E-mails from the Palin administration are being withheld from the public and the governor is citing executive privilege.

With subject lines like "Fagan," "Andrew Halcro" and even "Alaska Ear," it makes some wonder how those topics could possibly be policy related; especially since those same e-mails were copied to the governor's husband.

The administration says public employees need to know they can debate openly amongst themselves.

Andree McLeod, who tried repeatedly to get a job with the Palin administration, obtained the e-mails through a public records request.

The Department of Law says the e-mails are privileged. Officials say the private e-mails within the Palin administration won't be released.

"Part of the reason for not releasing e-mail messages is that there is a privileged recognized by the Alaska Supreme Court and courts across the country that is designed to encourage advisers to the governor to be frank and candid," Assistant Attorney General Dave Jones said.

Radio talk show host Dan Fagan is a Palin critic.

He says this isn't about policy. It's about not letting the public see what people in the administration have to say about Palin critics.

"If this is about executive privilege and confidential information then Todd should not be privy to them," Fagan said. "He's a regular citizen he does not get to be co-governor. We did not slash Todd on the ballot box."

Fagan is referring to Todd Palin, the governor's husband who also got copies of many of the e-mails.

Jones says the privilege applies in this case.

"That privilege applies to internal memoranda within state government but also to communications that are solicited from people outside state government," he said. "Sometimes the governor will want to solicit advice from people who are not state employees or federal Of course one of the closest advisers to a governor is likely to be that governor's spouse."

Here is video from KTUU news:




Also, this bit of information about an improper firing scandal:

TPM:

After the allegedly improper firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) appointed former Kenai Police Chief Chuck Kopp to the post.

Kopp served just two weeks this summer as the head of law enforcement in Alaska, resigning on July 25, after a past complaint of sexual harassment and a subsequent letter of reprimand surfaced in news reports.

But Palin made sure he had a soft fall for grace, giving him a $10,000 severance package for just two weeks served.