A Nov. 3 NewsBusters post by Terry Trippany promoted an Alaska Personnel Board investigation of Sarah Palin’s actions in Troopergate, which cleared Palin of wrongdoing. “The report provides vindication for Sarah Palin who had claimed that Branchflower’s investigation had been motivated by partisan politics,” Trippany writes.
But Trippany fails to note that the probe was not as “independent” as Trippany portrays it. As TPM points out:
Of course, this was an investigation that Palin herself initiated, by filing an ethics complaint against herself. The three members of the Personnel Board are appointed by Palin, and she cooperated with the investigation.
By contrast, the only independent investigation into the matter — which was conducted by the state legislature and with which Palin did not cooperate — found that Palin had violated state ethics laws by pressuring subordinates to fire Mike Wooten, a trooper with whom she was embroiled in a family dispute.
TPM also points out that the new report claims that the original report misconstrued the available evidence and did not consider or obtain all of the material evidence that is required to properly reach findings. One key reason that the original investigation could not “obtain all of the material evidence” was that Palin refused to cooperate with it.