This problem for Sarah Palin . . .

Gov. Sarah Palin appears to have broken state ethics law by asking people to donate money to a trust set up to pay her legal bills, an investigator hired by the state found.
“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 wrote in his report.
Daniel recommended that Palin refuse to take the money raised by her legal defense fund, called the Alaska Fund Trust. But he was also sympathetic toward Palin for the personal legal bills she’s accumulated defending herself against ethics complaints. Daniel suggested the Legislature consider changing the law so the state would pay in cases where complaints are tossed out.
“It may seem unfair to require the governor to hire a personal lawyer to defend against actions that arise from the fact that she is a public official, and at the same time, prohibit her from forming a private legal defense fund to help pay for the expense,” he wrote.
The matter isn’t settled. Daniel said in an interview that his report to the state personnel board was a preliminary “probable cause” finding. He said the case won’t be final until Palin resolves it, possibly by refusing to take money from the fund, or it goes to a formal board hearing.

. . . will apparently be resolved by a new website launching tonight, SarahPalinLegalDefenseFund.org, which is the formation of a new Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund. Apparently if she did not take this step, Palin’s counsel feared that it could go to court.

An intriguing point from the settlement agreement: “It is not certain that the advice of counsel is a defense against accusations of ethics violations in the state of Alaska.” In other words, if her lawyers made an error, she could be held criminally liable.

As I understand it, the old legal defense fund could be argued to be a way of benefiting privately from her office because it was set up during her governorship; with a new legal defense fund set up now that she is a private citizen, she should be in the clear.