Washington, Oct 13 : Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said that the inquiry report into the firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan had “vindicated” her action, even though the first part of the report said that she had “broken the state''s ethics law” as Alaska Governor in the scandal dubbed “Troopergate”.

The report, which was released by Alaska lawmakers on Friday, had examined whether Palin abused the powers of her office by exerting pressure to have her ex-brother-in-law Monegan, an Alaska State Trooper, fired over a bitter divorce and child custody fight with her sister.

“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,” cbs. com quoted her as saying after the report was released.

The report affirmed that as Alaska Governor Sarah had the constitutional right to hire and fire at will, and, therefore, her termination of Monegan was lawful. However, the report also found that Palin, her husband Todd, and her subordinates “used pressure and intimidation” to try to force the firing of Michael Wooten, beginning before her swearing-in ceremony took place, and therefore broke the law.

The investigation said she violated Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which states, "… 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."

Palin also said that her husband Todd was justified in complaining about Trooper Wooten (which the report finds he did for months on end), and said there was "nothing to apologize [for] there with Todd’s actions”.

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 said 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:

The Republican-led state legislature began the bipartisan investigation in July. Palin at first agreed to participate, saying that she had nothing to hide. However, once she was named to the GOP ticket in late August, her cooperation ceased. Subpoenaed witnesses refused to give testimony, and the state''s Attorney General, a Palin appointee, tried to get a judge to kill the subpoenas, claiming they were not valid, said the news report.

Meanwhile, the campaign managers Republican presidential candidate McCain sought to characterize the investigation as a “partisan effort” aimed at undercutting her vice presidential bid, and was behind legal efforts to block the release of the report, or at least delay it until after Election Day. (ANI)