Palin Making False Assertions About Troopergate

Republicans would call it “lying” if Obama did this.  Reporters from the Anchorage Daily News, KTVA-Channel 11 and KTUU-Channel 2 were allowed one question each on a conference call, with no follow-ups.  Here is a transcript and audio of the call.

One of the things Palin said was:

“Well, I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing,” Palin said, “any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.”

Jake Tapper at ABC shows that this is untrue.  The report did say that Palin’s firing of the Alaska Safety Commissioner “was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.”  The report goes on to say:

[Palin] “knowingly, as that term is defined in … statutes, permitted Todd Palin to use the Governor’s office and the resources of the Governor’s office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired. Her conduct violated AS 39.52.110(a) of the Ethics Act…”

The report states: “I find that Governor Sarah Palin Abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act … Compliance with the code of ethics is not optional…

Asked by the Anchorage Daily News if she did anything wrong Palin said, “So no, not having done anything wrong, and again very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all.”

But she was not cleared of any “unethical activity.”

Palin also stated  “There was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired.”  That may be her opinion but it is not what the panel concluded.

Palin elaborated by saying, “I don’t micromanage my commissioners and ask them to hire or fire anyone, and thankfully the truth was revealed there in that report, that showed that there was no unlawful nor unethical activity on my part.”

That is also untrue.  Here is the full report.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.