Hawaiʻi AG Not Giving Up $35K Paper Bag Case
The islands’ chief law enforcement officer asked for patience with her office’s investigation into who received the money.
Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez said her office will keep investigating the case of an influential lawmaker who took $35,000 from a bribery suspect, despite calls from advocacy groups to appoint an independent prosecutor.
A coalition of government accountability organizations called for a special prosecutor this week after Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke suggested she could be the lawmaker of interest in the case, but denied taking that money. The group said the state can’t be trusted to investigate itself, noting the AG may be investigating the lieutenant of her boss, the governor.
At a press conference on Friday, Lopez said any suggestion that her office has a conflict is wrong, adding that a unit was created just for this kind of occasion.
“If a crime has been committed, I will prosecute it to the fullest extent of the law,” she said. Later, she added: “I can’t be influenced.”
Lopez claimed there is “no legal process in Hawaiʻi law” for appointing a special prosecutor. Even if she did appoint someone, she said, they would still report to her as a deputy attorney general.
However, that wasn’t Lopez’s stance in 2024. In written testimony, Lopez opposed a bill that would have allowed the AG to appoint a special counsel, saying the measure wasn’t necessary because she already had that power. The office noted the AG is able to tap any of the four county prosecutor’s offices or enlist the Hawaiʻi Department of Law Enforcement.
“This bill, while well-intended, is ultimately unnecessary,” Lopez and one of her deputies testified.
On Friday, Lopez touted the abilities of the Special Investigation and Prosecution Division. It was created in 2022 in the wake of the bribery scandal that took down Senate majority leader Kalani English and state Rep. Ty Cullen — the scandal that also involved the $35,000.
The unit, headed by attorney David Van Acker, is specifically charged with handling cases involving corruption, fraud and economic crimes. Lopez said her team is very capable of running the operation, which she promised would be by the book.
AG Ready To Pursue Criminal Or Civil Violations
The $35,000 transaction came to light through a court document filed by the Department of Justice and published by Civil Beat. It described how Cullen became a cooperating FBI asset after his arrest and recorded one of his colleagues accepting the money, purportedly for an existing campaign.
That amount exceeds the maximum legal donation to a political campaign, and no lawmakers reported donations or gifts in that amount in 2022. The case was originally being investigated by The Hawaiʻi U.S. Attorney’s office, but the agency determined there was no chargeable federal bribery case.
Amid public demands for answers, federal investigators passed the file to Lopez.
The AG’s office, which began investigating about three weeks ago, has already sent out multiple subpoenas and conducted multiple interviews, Lopez said, although no grand jury has been convened.
The AG also said there is a legal wall within her office, which means that attorneys not involved in the criminal probe can address any civil violations that may arise.
Luke waited four years to disclose at least two campaign donations she received in 2022, including two $5,000 checks from lobbyist Tobi Solidum and his stepdaughter Kristen Pae. She amended her campaign filings to report the money last weekend after Civil Beat asked about it.
The failure to report donations is generally a civil violation that can incur a fine, although it can be a crime if done intentionally.
Lopez did not commit to a timeline for the criminal case’s conclusion, but she acknowledged that time is of the essence given that this is an election year with a primary in August.
“My ongoing investigation is proceeding as quickly as possible,” she said, “with the knowledge that everyone in Hawaii is waiting for the answers to these questions.”
The AG said she plans to provide public updates on the case every two weeks, although she noted she will likely not be able to offer specific details.
“I cannot name names,” she said. “I cannot tell you what evidence we received. And I can’t tell you whether or not a crime was committed. Revealing this information could jeopardize not only the rights of the suspect or suspects in this investigation, but the entire case.”
Lopez said she is not allowed to share details on the status of the investigation, nor its contents, with Gov. Josh Green — and said she hasn’t done so.
