AFTER 3 DAYS, NAGAMINE REMAINS SILENT
by John Charlton
(Oct. 13, 2009) — The Deputy Attorney General of the State of Hawaii, Jill T. Nagamine, remains silent in the face of questions put to her by The Post & Email, following its publishing of her letter to a concerned citizen, in which she denied the existence of previous opinions mentioning “natural born citizen” or policies regarding how citizenship status is determined by the HI Attorney General’s office.
The Post & Email as of Friday October 9, 5:30 PM, Hawaii Time, sent the following letter:
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 20:30:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Charlton <mr.john_charlton@yahoo.com>
Subject: Question from the Press
To: “Deputy AG Jill T. Nagamine” <Jill.T.Nagamine@hawaii.gov>
Cc: mr.john_charlton@yahoo.comFriday, October 9, 2009
Dear Deputy Attorney General Nagamine,
I am a citizen journalist, the editor of The Post & Email, an internet news site.
This evening I received and published a letter you sent to an XXX regarding an information request.
http://www.thepostemail.com/2009/10/09/hi-attorney-generals-office-denies-policies-on-nbc/
This published report has now been discussed at other blogs and a blog radio site.
As your response in the letter raises several issues, I wanted to give you an opportunity to clarify the AG’s position in this now public affair, so that I might quote your office in published reports.
Specifically,
1) I ask if a letter granting an HI agency head’s request for a legal opinion from your office, if subject to privacy issues in accord with 92F-13(1) as cited in the said letter published above, would legally entangle your office in liability; and/or whether it would move the burden of liability to that agency head if he/she used its information to make a public statement or to conduct official business.
2) Second, I ask just what your office does to determine questions of classification of citizenship; on account of your response to the above mentioned citizen, which seems to indicate that perhaps your office has no policy on how to access, understand, interpret or apply HI or U.S. Statutes and/or case law of the same on this matter?
3) Third, I wanted to ask if you are publically denying that anyone in your office, AG Bennett or anyone else, has ever informed Dr. Fukino on the matter of what a natural born citizen or a natural-born citizen is?
4) Also are you publically denying that not only that you do not have the documents requested by said citizen above mentioned, but that your office never had such.
I will correct my published report on the basis of any such information you supply, because my intention is to truthfully report the position of the HI AGs office on these questions and in this affair.
Sincerely,
Mr. John Charlton
The Post & Email awaits Nagamine’s response.
Citizens who wish to contact the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office for whatever reason can do so via the following contact information available at their website:
Attorney General Mark Bennett
Deputy Attorney General Jill T. Nagamine
Department of the Attorney General
425 Queen Street
Honolulu, HI 96813 (Map)
Telephone: (808) 586-1500
Fax: (808) 586-1239
Citizens are also free to contact Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle’s office:
The Honorable Linda Lingle
Governor, State of Hawai`i
Executive Chambers
State Capitol
Honolulu, Hawai`i 96813Phone: 808-586-0034
Fax: 808-586-0006
e-mail: governor.lingle@hawaii.gov
Or that of the Lieutenant Governor:
James R. “Duke” Aiona, Jr.
Lieutenant Governor, State of Hawai`i
Office of the Lieutenant Governor
State Capitol
Honolulu, Hawai`i 96813Phone:(808) 586-0255
Fax: (808) 586-0231
e-mail: ltgov@hawaii.gov
I have been asking Jill Nagamine and Janice Okubo questions for the last several days. Regardless of which question I ask, their answer is always, “We have no documents which are responsive to your request.”
Recently I sent Janice Okubo another email asking how Dr. Fukino KNEW without a doubt that Obama meets the definition of “natural born American citizen” per her July 27 statement if there are no documents to support it. I haven’t received a reply to that one.
Q. Why is this news?
A. A persons says as much about herself when she answers, as when she doesn’t; to which questions she responds, as to which she doesn’t.
Likewise, just as the Post & Email expects government officials to be open and transparent; it considers it in the interest of the readers for them to know which questions The Post & Email is asking, and whether answers are received or not.
That is news, according to our standards of what constitutes “The Free Press for a New Generation”. Its a novel concept for the press; and so deserves explanation.
Thanks for asking, Ladyhawke.