Gov. Sarah Palin did nothing wrong when she fired Alaska’s public safety commissioner according to a report released Monday by an independent state agency, The Anchorage Daily News reports.

The finding contradicts the findings of an earlier legislative inquiry, which found that Palin had abused her authority.

But as the paper notes, Palin’s firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan “became sharply politicized after Palin joined the ticket of Republican presidential candidate John McCain in late August.”

The paper goes on to say:

… the new report says the Legislature’s investigator was wrong to conclude that Palin abused her power by allowing aides and her husband, Todd, to pressure Monegan and others to dismiss her ex-brother-in-law, trooper Mike Wooten. Palin was accused of firing Monegan because Wooten, the target of a series of complaints from the governor and her family, stayed on the job.

The story continues:

Palin, after first promising to cooperate, never gave a statement to the special counsel hired by the Legislature, but she gave three hours of sworn testimony to Petumenos.

As for the last-minute timing — Petumenos gave out his report hours before the polls opened on Palin’s bid to become vice president — the investigator said it wasn’t ready until now.

“If you think this is being done to favor the governor politically, it certainly would have been much more favorable for her to receive this days before now,” Petumenos said.

He’d hoped to release it Thursday, but it wasn’t finished, he said. Personnel Board chair Debra English got her copy at about 4 p.m. Sunday.

The board voted to accept the report Monday, ending the investigation.