Bumped and Updated: News organizations all over the country are wondering why Sarah Palin is lying about the findings of the Alaska Investigation into TrooperGate:

Sarah Palin's last chance to tell the truth to Americans
Kansas City Star:

Sarah Palin has about one more week to come clean with Americans, tell them the truth and try to win votes for John McCain's ticket. Can she do it?

Not based on her actions so far.

Remember, a bipartisan investigation found that she abused Alaska's ethics laws when she tried to have the head state trooper get rid of an ex-brother-in-law. The report was released on Friday.

Yet Palin claimed to reporters over the weekend that she had been "cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of unethical activity."

That's just not true, and Palin knows it.

She kept repeating her silly contention at campaign stops, instructing one reporter to "read the report, sir."

Yes, Americans should read it. Here's the money quote, repeated on press reports all weekend long:

"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda."

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Free Sarah Palin, Day 46: Five minute call with reporters, no follow-ups
San Francisco Chronicle:

Palin used her brief minutes to insist -- as she has repeatedly -- that with regard to the Troopergate investigation, she was found not guilty of any unethnical activity.

''Well, I'm very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing ... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.''

Not true.

Independent investigator Stephen Branchflower's report released on Friday found that, while that Palin was legally within bounds to fire public safety commission Walter Monegan, she had "abused her power'' by violating the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

The report noted Palin ''knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: to get Trooper Michael Wooten fired.''

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The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin XIX: Abuse Of Power
Andrew Sullivan

At some point, the McCain campaign will realize that their veep candidate is a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic.

Again: this is the clear pattern with Palin: she publicly denies reality, insists on repeating that denial and is unable to deal with real world the way psychologically healthy people do. That's why I called her lies "odd lies." They are not the lies of a devious politician. They are much more troubling than that. They reflect a psyche unable to process fact when it conflicts with a delusional self-image. She is even worse in this psychotic denialism than Bush. She is a politician who can only survive in a propaganda state.

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Palin's Troopergate actions disturbing
Dallas Morning News

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claims the Troopergate investigation clears her of wrongdoing in the firing of her public safety commissioner, which it does not.

The state ethics panel investigation - a bipartisan effort started by a Legislature controlled by her own Republican party - found that though she was technically within her rights to fire the man, she violated state ethics law and abused her power in doing so.

Specifically, the report found, the governor allowed her husband, Todd, to strong-arm government employees in an effort to get someone to fire a state trooper, Michael Wooten, who was going through an ugly divorce with the governor's sister. The state investigator rejected the Palin family's claims that Trooper Wooten was a personal threat, concluding that the governor misused her authority "to advance a personal agenda."

Ms. Palin would be wise to quit trying to spin her way out of this mess. It would be far more plausible if she admitted error but said she and her husband acted out of fear - perhaps misplaced - for the family's safety. But to claim vindication when the report is actually fairly damning should give even McCain-Palin supporters pause.

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Four Pinocchios for Palin
Washington Post Fact Checker

Whether or not the Branchflower report -- which was launched by a bipartisan committee -- was a partisan smear job is debatable. What is not debatable is that the report clearly states that she violated the State Ethics Act. Palin has reasonable grounds for arguing that the report cleared her of "legal wrongdoing," since she did have the authority to fire Monegan. But it is the reverse of the truth to claim that she was cleared of "any hint of any kind of unethical activity."

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Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions that Are Flatly False
ABC News:

"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."

That's just not the case.

One can make the argument, as Palin and her allies have tried to do, that this investigation -- launched by a bipartisan Republican-controlled legislative body -- was somehow a partisan Democratic witch hunt, but one cannot honestly make the argument that the report concluded that Palin was "cleared of any legal wrongdoing" or "any hint of unethical activity."

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Palin: Probe Exonerated Me
While Troopergate Report Said She Broke State Ethics Law, Alaska Gov. Says She's Been Cleared Of Wrongdoing
CBS News:

In a brief conference call with press reported by the Anchorage Daily News, Palin said, "I'm very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing ... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."[...]

When reminded that the report's first finding was that she had broken the state's ethics law in pressuring for Wooten's dismissal, Palin responded that she felt she had done nothing wrong at all, and directed her response to the firing of Monegan, which the report said she had the authority to do.

----original post begins here----
Sarah Palin Lies to Reporters About TrooperGate Findings
published Sunday October 12, 2008

Governor Sarah Palin spoke to reporters in Alaska Sunday expressing relief that she was cleared of "any hint of unethical activity." This statement was in response to Friday's release of the Troopergate report which found that she was in fact guilty of violating Alaskan ethics laws.

In a brief, 5 minute telephone press conference with Alaskan reporters, Palin repeatedly states that she was cleared of unethical activity, which is a direct contradiction to the published report(pdf) which found her guilty of ethics law violations.

Palin: "I'm very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing - any... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."

That's a lie. The report explicitly and clearly states that she's in fact guilty of violating Alaskan Executive Branch ethics laws:

Finding Number One:

For reasons explained in Section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.010(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.010(a) states:

"The legislature affirms that each public officer holds office as a pubic trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

If Palin disagreed with the report's finding that she violated the ethics law that would be one thing, but what Sarah Palin does instead is lie to reporters, stating that she was cleared by the investigation when in fact she wasn't, insuring that the quotes which are published in newspapers lie to the voters regarding the outcome of the report.

Palin: "I'm very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing - any... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.

Following Palin's opening statement, Lisa Deemer from the Anchorage Daily News asks: "Governor, finding number one of the report was that you abused your power by violating state law. Do you think you did anything wrong at all in this TrooperGate case?"

Palin replies "Not at all." She goes on to describe the firing of Walt Monegen (and the investigative report's findings indeed clears of her of wrongdoing in the termination of Monegan), all the while ignoring the reporter's question which specifically asked about finding number one - the ethics law violation. After replying that she had legitimate concerns in the firing of Monegan, Palin once again lies about the outcome of the report:

"And again, very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all."

The McCain/Palin campaign is deliberately and intentionally lying to voters, and as recent statements by McCain/Palin supporters at campaign rallies and Town Hall meetings demonstrate -- statements to the effect that Obama is a dangerous and an Arab -- Republicans are relying on this kind of intentional lying to contradict the facts in voter's minds.

Republicans have been making a concerted effort to foster voter's mistrust of the media, stating that the media twists words and is dishonest in their coverage of McCain. In her VP debate Palin states she isn't going to answer questions that the media poses, but instead will give some "straight talk" directly to the voters.

Here we have Palin seeding news reports with quotes from her that contain lies which contradict the news reports that she's guilty of abusing her office of governor for personal gain. The newspaper headlines indicate that the report found Palin abused her power, but Palin's quotes directly contradict that fact.

Not only is John McCain avoiding the issues with his vicious and racist attacks on Obama, his running mate is just flat out lying about the finding that she's guilty of Alaskan ethics law violations in order to minimize the damage to their campaign.

What does that say about Palin, and McCain for that matter?

Sarah Palin is not only a typical, self-serving, ethically-challenged Washington D.C. style self-indulged "politics as usual" politician, she's going to lie on top of it - just flat out lie to voters... intentionally and deliberately lie. She's not going to address reporter's questions, she's going to ignore reality and just tell lies - knowing that her lies will be published verbatim by the press.

And she's wants voters to believe that she's a "Reformer"?

This is a "Maverick" who's going to clean up Washington?

Do we really want another four years of liars in the White House?