Role in Ethics Investigation of Sarah Palin
O'Callaghan was sent to Alaska to handle "legal issues that are affecting the political dynamic of the campaign," according to Taylor Griffin, a former Treasury Department official in the Bush administration. Newsweek describes O'Callaghan's role as "helping to direct an aggressive legal strategy aimed at shutting down a pre-election ethics investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin." Working with Palin's attorney Thomas Van Flein, O'Callaghan worked to block an investigation by the Alaska Legislative Council, moving consideration of the matter to the Alaska Personnel Board, ("an independent agency composed of members appointed by the Governor," according to Alaska's official website). After filing the ethics complaint with the Alaska Personnel Board, Van Flein and O'Callaghan then moved to have it dismissed on the grounds that there was no "probable cause" for an ethics inquiry. "There was no Ethics Act violation and there is no need to go forward with this," O'Callaghan told reporters.
The Alaska Personnel Board concluded that Palin did not violate the Alaska Executive Ethics Act by trying to get her brother-in-law fired. Alaska Personnel Board investigations are normally secret, but the three-member board chose to release its report one day before the Presidential election.
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