SARAH PALIN'S husband, Todd, has told investigators that his wife was unaware that he was putting pressure on Alaskan officials to fire their former brother-in-law from the state police force.
Mrs Palin is under investigation over allegations that she abused her power as Alaska governor by sacking the state's public safety commissioner because he failed to take action against her former relative, Mike Wooten.
Mrs Palin claims she dismissed commissioner Walter Monegan over a budget issue that had nothing to do with the family dispute.
In a 52-page affidavit, Mr Palin acknowledged that he had met frequently with the governor's aides to urge them to take action against Mr Wooten.
"I have heard criticism that I am too involved in my wife's administration," Mr Palin wrote.
"My wife and I are very close. We are each other's best friend. I have helped her in her career the best I can, and she has helped me." Mr Palin told his wife's staff that Mr Wooten had threatened and emotionally abused his family and gave them photographs and documents, which they forwarded to others in the administration.
He told investigators that he had not put pressure on anyone and that after he raised the issue repeatedly with his wife, she told him to "drop it".
"Anyone who knows Sarah knows she is the governor and she calls the shots," Mr Palin wrote.
"I make no apologies for wanting to protect my family and wanting to publicise the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge." Affidavits from Mrs Palin's staff appeared to support her claim that her decision to fire the commissioner was unrelated to the dispute with Mr Wooten.
The investigation has been an unwelcome distraction for Mrs Palin as she and Republican presidential candidate John McCain are slipping in the polls.
The Republican campaign had another setback yesterday when it emerged that Mr McCain had modified a plan to buy up troubled mortgages, which he announced during Tuesday's debate in Nashville.
When his campaign distributed its description of the plan on Tuesday night, it said the federal government would buy failed mortgages at discounted rates. But on Wednesday, the campaign deleted that line, which would mean the government would pay the full value of the mortgage.
Barack Obama told supporters yesterday that Mr McCain's plan would cost taxpayers billions of dollars and reward bad behaviour by lenders.
"Senator McCain actually wants the government to pay the full face value of mortgages on the books, even though they're not worth that much anymore," the Democrat said at a rally in Ohio.
"It's a plan that would guarantee that American taxpayers lose, by handing over $300 billion to underwrite the kind of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street that got us into this mess."
Mr Obama said the changes Mr McCain made to his mortgage plan were just the latest in a series of shifting positions on how to deal with the economic crisis.
"Well, I don't think we can afford that kind of erratic and uncertain leadership in these uncertain times. We need steady leadership in the White House. We need a president we can trust in times of crisis. And that's the kind of president I intend to be," he said.
Campaigning in Wisconsin yesterday, Mr McCain said voters needed to know more about Mr Obama's relationship with former urban guerrilla William Ayers. The Republican said he did not care about "an old washed-up terrorist", but that Mr Obama had been evasive about the nature and extent of their association.
"We need to know the full extent of the relationship, because of whether Senator Obama is telling the truth to the American people or not. That's the question," he said.
