Alaska Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by letting her husband press for the firing of a state trooper, a legislative probe found, while adding that she acted within her authority when she dismissed the state’s public safety commissioner.

“Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda,” said the state legislative investigator’s report released yesterday in Anchorage. The report also said Palin’s dismissal of the commissioner, Walt Monegan, was a “proper and lawful exercise” of her power to fire department heads for any reason.

Monegan has said he was dismissed for refusing to fire Trooper Michael Wooten, who was involved in a divorce and custody battle with Palin’s sister. The report on Palin, the Republican candidate for vice president, was released less than a month before the Nov. 4 election. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain‘s campaign rejected the findings as partisan politics.

The report “shows that the governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan,” said Meg Stapleton, a spokeswoman for McCain’s campaign. “The report also illustrates what we’ve known all along: This was a partisan-led inquiry run by” supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, she said.

The investigator wrote in the report that, “I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating” a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act, which bars any official action to benefit a personal interest.

Violation of the ethics act could result in sanctions, including up to $5,000 in civil fines by a state ethics board, according to the law.

McCain’s campaign has criticized the probe as partisan because the lawmaker directing it, Hollis French, is a Democrat. The state Legislative Council, which ordered the investigation, is dominated by Republicans.