I’ll have a longer piece soon about the Branchflower report.  Released yesterday evening, the “Troopergate” investigation concluded with the widely-expected judgment that while Gov. Sarah Palin did not violate any law in dismissing Commissioner Walt Monegan three months ago, she abused her executive power by pressuring — and allowing her husband and various staffers to exert pressure against — numerous public officials (including Monegan) to take further punitive action against State Trooper Mike Wooten.  Palin’s defense so far has been to focus narrowly on the act of firing Monegan, which she correctly argues is permitted under the state’s constitution. She’s argued as well that the state’s Executive Ethics Act — which the report concludes she violated — only covers actions that are intended to bring financial gain. Ergo, from her vantage point, there’s no foul.

Her defense is predictable but wrong on both counts. The report concludes that while Palin was entitled to fire Walt Monegan without cause, she was nevertheless not free to use her public office to further a private grudge against a state employee whose conduct had already been investigated and reprimanded. And as the report clearly points out, the ethics statute — which her own administration amended and strengthened in 2007 — insists that employees of the executive branch cannot use their office to “benefit a personal or financial interest.” The legislation clearly defines “benefit” as including “anything that is to a person’s advantage or self-interest, or from which a person profits, regardless of the financial gain” (emphasis added). As the report enumerates in creepy detail, the Palins — especially the “First Dude” — clearly took a personal interest in the professional fate of Mike Wooten. And in spite of being advised on numerous occasions that their various queries were not only illegal but made the state vulnerable to civil action if Wooten were indeed fired during Palin’s term in office, the Governor and her staffers did not relent.

The full report is available here in .pdf form.