FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AFP) — Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin will be quizzed this week as part of a second probe into allegations the Alaska governor abused her power, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Palin is to give a deposition in the case on Friday, a spokesman for the presidential campaign of John McCain confirmed.
Alaska's state personnel board is probing whether Palin violated ethics conditions when she dismissed her public safety commissioner in July, allegedly because he refused to fire a state trooper, her ex-brother-in-law.
An initial investigation by Alaska's state legislature earlier this month found Palin had the authority to remove the commissioner but had breached the state's ethics code in seeking to fire an individual trooper.
Palin requested a second investigation be conducted by the state personnel board after charging that the legislative probe was politically motivated.
"This is the inquiry that Governor Palin requested to make sure that the facts were out there on this," said Taylor Griffin, a spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign, branding the first probe a "political witch-hunt."
Palin and her husband Todd will both provide statements on Friday in the personnel board investigation, according to Griffin.
Tim Petumenos, the lawyer chosen to lead the investigation, will meet Palin on the campaign trail to take the statements.
Alaska law does not provide a deadline for findings in personnel board investigations, and Griffin said Palin has not requested that the investigation be finalized before the November 4 election.
"We've deferred to Mr. Petumenos," Griffin said.
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