Report: Palin Not Responsible For Todd’s Acting OutThe key finding of the new Trooper-Gate report is that the earlier report, conducted by the state legislature, erred in finding that Sarah Palin broke state ethics laws by pressuring subordinates to fire Mike Wooten.
The new report finds that:
The Branchflower Report … states that violation of the scope of code provision may be based on the governor’s inaction as opposed to the governor’s affirmative acts.
…
But … the Ethics Act does not require a person subject to its provisions to police the behavior of third parties who are not subject to its provisions. To find that the Governor violated the Ethics Act by failing to control her husband’s behavior would require one to add language to the Ethics Act that does not exist.
In other words, Sarah Palin can’t be held legally responsible for Todd Palin’s actions.
It bears repeating: this was a report that Palin herself initiated, so, despite some other breathless reporting in the press, it’s no surprise that it exonerates her. The only independent report into the matter found that she broke state ethics laws.
