Palin recently hired a lawyer to defend herself in a bipartisan legislative probe into her alleged abuse of power in the so-called "Troopergate" scandal.

She allegedly pressured public safety commissioner Walter Monegan to fire Trooper Mike Wooten, then fired Monegan in July when he did not come through.

The governor has denied the allegations, describing them as "outrageous" and "false".

The Post, citing email messages provided by Monegan, showed that she ridiculed a state trooper internal affairs investigation into Wooten's conduct.

Monegan has given copies of the emails to state ethics investigators to support his contention that he was sacked for failing to fire Wooten, reported the Post, who saw the messages.

"It was a joke, the whole year long 'investigation' of him," read a February 7, 2007 email from Palin to Monegan, according to the Post.

"This is the same trooper who's out there today telling people the new administration is going to destroy the trooper organisation, and that he'd 'never work for that b****', Palin'."

The email, sent from Palin's personal Yahoo account, gave Monegan permission to speak on a violent-crime bill before the state legislature, the Post said.

Palin's campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella said that her boss was alerting officials to potential threats to her family, and that there is no evidence that Palin ever ordered Wooten to be fired.

AFP