Update!

“A legislative investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister, or by failing to prevent her husband Todd from doing so.

The report by investigator Steve Branchflower was made public late this afternoon by a bipartisan 12-0 vote of the Legislative Council, which authorized the investigation.

Branchflower’s report contains four findings. The first concludes that Palin violated the state’s executive branch ethics act, which says that “each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.” ”

Anchorage Daily News

Mudflats

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“Alaska lawmakers huddled behind closed doors Friday to review a report on Gov. Sarah Palin’s firing of her public safety commissioner, who says he was sacked for resisting pressure to fire the governor’s ex-brother-in-law. …

The bipartisan Legislative Council went into executive session to discuss the report from former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower before its scheduled release. But state Senate President Lyda Green told reporters outside the meeting room, “It’s going to be hours.”

Only a portion of the report is scheduled to be made public after the executive session, said state Sen. Kim Elton, the Legislative Council’s chairman. A second part of the report contains “confidential” information and will be kept under wraps, said Elton, a Democrat who has been under fire from Palin’s supporters.

CNN

Drumming fingers on desk….looking at clock….drinking coffee….

mudflats

Andrew Halcro has got nothin’ yet…

update: In somewhat related news an Anchorage Superior Court Judge has ordered that all Palin e-mail while being the governor must be saved.

A judge has ordered the state of Alaska to preserve any government-related e-mails that Gov. Sarah Palin sent from private accounts.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers ruled Friday in the lawsuit brought by Anchorage resident Andree McLeod against Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Palin has occasionally used private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, and her Yahoo accounts were hacked last month. The hacking of Palin’s private account was significant because it showed that using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business would be vulnerable to being exposed.

It wasn’t widely known that the governor and her staff were using private e-mail accounts until McLeod filed the first of several open records requests earlier this year that yielded some of the e-mail traffic _ much of it redacted for what were deemed privacy reasons.

The judge ordered the attorney general to contact Yahoo and other private carriers to preserve any e-mails sent and received on those accounts. If the e-mails were destroyed when the accounts were deactivated, he directed state officials to have the companies attempt to resurrect the e-mails.

“We shouldn’t be in a position where public records have been lost because the governor didn’t do what every other state employee knows to do, which is to use an official, secure state e-mail account to conduct state business,” McLeod said after the 90-minute hearing.

“It’s a dereliction of the governor and her duties,” she said.