From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage –

A lot is being made about Kristan Cole, trustee of Gov. Sarah Palin’s legal defense fund, saying earlier this week that “the governor is not, was not and has not been involved in this trust.”

Cole said she had never talked about the trust fund with Palin until Tuesday, when it became public that the investigator hired by the state personnel board found “probable cause” that Palin had violated Alaska ethics law by asking for money in order to help pay her personal legal bills.

“In light of the evidence that the governor expressly authorized the creation of the trust and the fact the trust website quite openly uses the governor's position to solicit donations, there is probable cause to believe that Governor Palin used, or attempted to use, her official position for personal gain in violation of Alaska statute," Anchorage attorney Tom Daniel concluded in his report.

What evidence? Daniel said the evidence came from Cole herself, who told him that Palin gave her approval to create the trust as the “official” legal defense fund and authorized the use of her photograph. How does that square with Cole now saying that she didn't speak with Palin?

I finally got a chance to speak with Cole today and she confirmed that, while she only spoke with Palin that one time, she had been working some with Meg Stapleton, who is Palin’s close adviser as well as the spokeswoman for both the Palin family and the governor’s political action committee.

“She helped me find the website company and she also was the one that contacted the governor to get her permission to use her name and likeness,” Cole said.

Stapleton is paid through the political action committee, SarahPAC, which at one point was urging people to donate to the legal defense fund instead of the political action committee.

Cole said she became involved in the effort to help with Palin’s legal bills after reading media reports that Palin had amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs defending herself against ethics complaints, and that a Texas man was trying to set up his own fund to help her out.

Stapleton told the Daily News at the time (early April) that Palin couldn’t accept money from the informal Texas effort, but that an official fund was in the works. Stapleton explained then that Palin gave her permission to start a fund, but wasn’t otherwise involved in it.

Palin herself had earlier written to the Daily News that she “obviously” could not afford to pay the legal bills. "Some have suggested a legal fund to pay these bills. We'll have to pursue that,” she wrote.

In late May, after the creation of the official fund, a pro-Palin web site called “Sarah’s Web Brigade” posted what appeared to be a handwritten note, signed by Palin, thanking an Alaska resident named Mark Bowers for donating to the legal defense fund. Cole told me she didn’t know anything about that or how Palin would have received the list of donors to the fund.

The bylaws of the legal defense fund give Palin herself the power to replace its trustees. Asked whether that means Palin is in charge of the fund, Cole said the attorneys put together the bylaw language for legal reasons, and referred questions on that to Jon Givens, an Anchorage attorney. Daily News reporter Lisa Demer is giving him a call.