The Hawaiʻi attorney general reversed course on Tuesday, announcing she will take up the case of a Hawaiʻi lawmaker who was recorded accepting $35,000 in a paper bag from the subject of a bribery investigation in 2022.
A press release indicates federal authorities informed state officials on Friday that they would share evidence of the transaction, which was recorded by former state Rep. Ty Cullen after he was arrested for bribery in 2021 and became
an FBI asset.
To help in the investigation and lower his eventual sentence, Cullen accepted $3,000 from an unnamed bribery subject and two days later recorded that person handing $35,000 to one of his legislative colleagues. The identity of the lawmaker described in a court filing as “influential” has remained hidden from the public and it is unclear whether that person is still in elected office today.
Public scrutiny has grown since Civil Beat revealed the monetary handoff’s existence last year. Questions have been raised about whether it was a bribe, an unreported gift or a campaign contribution — which would be a state crime — or legal campaign cash bundling, typically arranged to curry favor with politicians.
As the public calls for transparency and accountability mounted, the issue became a hot political issue and the subject of rampant speculation. The clock is ticking on the statute of limitations to file state charges, if any are warranted.
The federal government has described the matter as part of an ongoing investigation, and state officials — the AG and both houses of the Legislature — had repeatedly said they would not launch their own probe so as not to interfere with the federal case.
A citizen petition effort, led by government accountability advocate and attorney Alexander Silvert, put pressure on the Legislature to expose the recipient of the $35,000. And a handful of current lawmakers called for a legislative probe.
Tuesday’s announcement means the ball is now in the state’s court.
Gov. Josh Green and Attorney General Anne Lopez determined together that a state investigation into the matter is in the public interest, according to Tuesday’s press release from the AG’s office.
“Governor Green has consistently emphasized the importance of individuals coming forward voluntarily when concerns arise, expressing his hope that matters can be resolved in a way that maintains public trust in government,” the AG’s office said.
“In recent weeks, Hawaiʻi state legislative leadership, while deferring to the Attorney General’s previous recommendations to hold on investigating this matter, have also strongly urged that the matter be formally reviewed to ensure accountability and transparency. The January 16 decision by federal authorities to share evidence provided a clear path for the Attorney General to proceed without jeopardizing the ongoing federal investigation.”
Leading the investigation is the attorney general’s special investigation and prosecution division, which was created in 2022 in the wake of the bribery scandal.
“To preserve the integrity of the investigation,” the press release said, the governor and attorney general will not comment further.
The announcement was welcome news to those who had called for a state probe into the person who some are calling the “$35,000 bandit” but also prompted new calls for transparency.
The name of the lawmaker who took the money needs to be revealed as soon as possible, Rep. Della Au Belatti said at a press conference in front of the federal court building on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is not an investigation that needs to be bottled up,” Belatti said. “Is it a current legislator? Is it someone who’s sitting in the executive branch?”
At the press conference, Silvert called on the governor to order the AG to reveal the identity of the mystery lawmaker to the Legislature. Silvert, a retired federal public defender, noted the conduct may not prove to be illegal but the Legislature should be able to “address within their own house what to do with this person.”
Belatti, a Democrat who is running for Congress, and Kanani Souza, a Republican, have been pushing the attorney general to investigate the case since last year. In a July 2025 letter the lawmakers shared with the media on Tuesday they urged the AG to look into the case, determine what happened, and make the facts public.
Understanding the circumstances is crucial, they wrote, to determine if laws were broken, and if they weren’t, to understand what laws need to be written to “curtail practices which are eroding the public’s trust in government.”
If the $35,000 was dispersed among multiple lawmakers, those elected officials may want to return the funds, Belatti said on Tuesday, “so they can make it right.”
As recently as two weeks ago, the AG had said she would not investigate the case. She said she’d spoken directly with acting U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson, and he “affirmed that a parallel investigation by state authorities would interfere with their federal investigation.”
“The United States Attorney is a highly respected prosecutor who has served in Hawaiʻi for years, and there was no ambiguity in our conversation that a parallel state investigation would disrupt his ongoing investigation,” Lopez said in a statement on Jan. 7. “To the extent that the Department of the Attorney General can assist in the future, I welcome that wholeheartedly, but I appreciate and respect the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s current position.”
Since that statement, the heat has only turned up.
Starting on Jan. 6, Civil Beat surveyed every living current and former lawmaker who was in office in 2022 to ask if they were the recipient of the funds. Almost all said no, with the exception of a few who didn’t respond, and two who have passed away. Silvert’s petition gained traction, with more than 1,000 signatories as of Tuesday. And lawmakers, including Belatti and Jarrett Keohokalole, who is also running for Congress – have made it a point to speak out in support of transparency.
Keohokalole is putting forth legislation to extend the statute of limitations for bribery charges to nine years, from six years — which would run out in 2028. Belatti noted on Tuesday that if the lawmaker in question is still in office, they need to be isolated so they cannot vote on the statute of limitations in their own case.
Even as the AG’s office investigates, a group of House members still wants the Legislature to take action. In a letter to House Speaker Nadine Nakamura on Tuesday, Reps. Belatti, Souza, Terez Amato, Elle Cochran and Kim Coco Iwamoto asked for details about how Silvert’s petition will be handled.
“We need to get to the bottom of this,” Souza said at the press conference.
That same group sent a letter to Sorenson last week asking for the answer to a key question: Is the legislator who accepted the $35,000 in a paper bag a current sitting legislator? Yes or no.
Sorenson, Belatti said, did not answer the question.
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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
