McCain campaign sends lawyer to Alaska to shut down ‘Troopergate’ investigation.

On September 2, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) filed an ethics complaint against herself with the state’s Personnel Board in an effort to move the “Troopergate” investigation from the state’s legislature to the three-member board she oversees. Yesterday, Ed O’Callaghan, a former U.S. Attorney that the McCain campaign sent to Alaska to advise Palin’s lawyers on the case, said Palin “is 100 percent going to cooperate with the Personnel Board inquiry.” However, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reports that O’Callaghan is actually in Alaska to shut down the investigation that Palin initiated:

Then this week, [Palin's attorney Thomas] Van Flein (again assisted by O’Callaghan) filed a new motion with the Personnel Board. This one argued that, after a review of the evidence, including internal e-mails within the governor’s office, the governor’s lawyers had determined there was “no probable cause” to pursue any ethics inquiry into Palin at all. As a result, it argued, the previous motion for an ethics inquiry (which Van Flein himself had filed less than two weeks ago) should be dismissed.