More than 900 Hawaiʻi residents are asking the Legislature to get to the bottom of a mysterious transaction in 2022 that involved a man handing $35,000 in a paper bag to someone federal investigators have described as an influential legislator.

The details of that episode made public by Civil Beat last March spurred a citizens’ petition calling on lawmakers to form an investigative committee to uncover what exactly happened during that transaction. The petition was filed Monday morning with the House and Senate, addressed to Speaker Nadine Nakamura and Senate President Ron Kouchi, by former federal public defender Alexander Silvert.

Silvert told Civil Beat that such an investigation could be completed quickly without dragging every member of the Legislature before a committee. That could be accomplished by putting one person on the witness stand: former Rep. Ty Cullen, who recorded the $35,000 incident as a federal informant working to reduce his sentence after facing bribery-related charges.

On Jan. 20, 2022, Cullen met with an “investigative subject” — who had paid him $3,000 just days earlier for a favor — and an unnamed legislator. The subject gave the legislator $35,000 for use in a campaign at the time. The identities of the investigative subject and the lawmaker have not been made public; charges also have not been filed against either individual.

Silvert said lawmakers should focus on what happened on that day during that meeting.

“This is a very narrow and focused investigation,” Silvert said. “It’s not a circus. It’s not McCarthyism.”

The Senate did not respond to a request for comment. House spokesperson Cathy Lee said the House received the petition and will review it.

Lawmakers are not required to heed the petition. Senate and House rules do both indicate the petition will be brought to the floor of each chamber in the early days of the session, set to begin on Jan. 21, and referred to a committee. However, that process can be halted if one or more members object to the petition. If that happens, House members can decide to table it while Senate rules are unclear as to what occurs after an objection.

Silvert said he’s given up on the Senate.

“Throughout this entire process, not one senator has said a word,” he said. 

Instead, he’s working on getting 17 House members — the number required to recall motions — to agree to override an attempt to table the petition.

Silvert, whose vigorous defense of a man wrongfully accused of stealing a mailbox led to criminal charges against a former Honolulu police chief and his wife, hopes lawmakers take the petition seriously and opt to reveal who the unnamed legislator is rather than wait for another round of indictments.

“You pay the price now as opposed to covering it up and paying the price in a few years,” Silvert said.

To form an investigative committee, either the House or the Senate can pass a resolution outlining the committee’s scope and powers. That power was last used in 2021 when the House formed a committee to investigate state Auditor Les Kondo. The process took many months and was criticized by some committee members for turning up little by the time a final report was issued in January 2022.

Payment Stems From Bribery Case

In February 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled wire fraud charges against former Sen. J. Kalani English and then-Rep. Ty Cullen. Both later admitted to taking bribes from businessman Milton Choy in exchange for legislation that favored his company and led to multimillion-dollar deals. 

A federal memo detailing Cullen’s assistance in the bribery investigation revealed that he met with an investigative subject in late 2021 while on a trip to New Jersey at the direction of the FBI. Cullen later engaged with the man again in Honolulu on at least two occasions. During one of those meetings, the man gave the unnamed lawmaker $35,000.

Civil Beat published details of the improperly redacted memo last March. Nakamura and Kouchi said little in response and took no public action on the findings until Silvert launched the petition in early November.

Weeks later, Nakamura asked State Attorney General Anne Lopez and acting U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson to weigh in. Lopez wrote that the state wouldn’t take any steps that harm an active federal investigation.

Sorenson’s letter reiterated that the federal investigation remains active, but also indicated that the $35,000 isn’t related to the bribery offense investigators were looking into as part of the evidence Cullen gathered.

The $35,000 transaction could be a state campaign spending violation. Only Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke’s campaign reported an amount close to that, but she says she was not the unnamed legislator and donors Civil Beat contacted last year said they did not give through an intermediary. No other candidates for office reported donations approaching that amount.

Now, 929 verified Hawaiʻi residents want the Legislature to uncover the mystery.

The petitioners come from every corner of the state and all walks of life. They include doctors, nurses, teachers, principals, business owners, social workers and firefighters.

One of the petitioners is retired nightclub owner Gary Weller, who said he signed the petition because he’s “against corruption in government.” 

Weller saw underworld figures like Nappy Pulawa come through his bar, huddling in back rooms with expensive bottles of champagne. But it’s the deeds of politicians he’s seen in the news over the years that he finds unsavory. In decades of doing business in Hawaiʻi, the 74-year-old has seen many of the major political scandals unfold in the news involving firms bribing politicians for contracts.

“Corruption is so embedded in society here, the people involved think they’re above the law,” Weller said. “They have so much power for so long a period of time, they think they’re invincible. And every once in a while, one of them gets caught.”

Silvert hopes residents across the state will call and write to their lawmakers, saying they support an investigation.

“It’s really through the voice of the people,” he said, “that legislators will be swayed.”