ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE: An explosive meeting this weekend at party HQ revealed more financial impropriety by party leaders and their crooked associates; then turmoil followed.
Waving a copy of HIRA's newsletter, former party chair Pat Saiki used the State Committee meeting to berate and humiliate her successor Fritz Rohlfing. Saiki scolded Rohlfing for not getting approval before using party funds to hire a Democrat union law firm to pursue a frivolous and expensive lawsuit against the conservative Republican organization HIRA.
Why is Saiki seething? The 'blank check' taken from HRP's checkbook was NOT authorized.
Rohlfing did NOT have approval, from either the party's executive committee
or
the state committee to expend thousands for the proposed anti-HIRA lawsuit. No member of the executive committee rose to Rohfling's defense. Miriam Hellreich and Barbara Marumoto joined Saiki and others in confirming that no vote took place which allowed Rohlfing to divert party funds from the approved budget or mortgage account to hire lawyers to pursue litigation. Rohlfing's fellow officers admitted to discussions of the matter -
but nobody, including a silent Ted Liu and Boyd Ready, said any vote took place
.
Fritz and his lawsuit were hung out to dry as nearly 50 State Committee members began to wonder how Rohlfing can survive as chair after Saiki made public his stealing of party funds. It's hard to believe that Rohlfing ever hoped to be appointed a judge with his apparent casualness about breaking rules and breaking laws.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW
and hear
the overwhelming evidence of Class C Felony embezzlement
for yourself . . .
MORE FINANCIAL FALLOUT
:
The revelations of
unauthorized financial transactions of thousands of dollars
led to
MAJOR immediate changes
at party headquarters during the chaotic and unorthodox meeting. Rohlfing's party treasurer
Gwen Honjo
was
ousted during a spot election
in favor of social conservative
Mary Smart
,
a $6,000 donor to HIRA
. Longtime HRP consultant and party bookkeeper
Kathi Thomason
(
past HRP treasurer and wife of HRP Platform Committee/past HRP attorney Terry Thomason
),
stepped down from her post without any notice
. Trying to deter Smart's election, agitated HRP national committeewoman Miriam Hellreich sternly threatened Smart that she would have to accept responsibility for HRP finances and take on a lot of work to handle party finances, record-keeping and reporting with Thomason gone.
Left unspoken was how new treasurer Smart would be directly implicated in Rohlfing's financial corruption if she doesn't move quickly to retrieve the thousands of dollars stolen by beleaguered state party chair and cancel the blank check given by Rohlfing to the Democrat union law firm now engaged in litigation against HIRA. With stolen funds from party coffers funding Rohlfing's unauthorized anti-HIRA lawsuit, Rohlfing quickly adjourned the meeting before providing answers to whether the funds were diverted from the party's political budget, employment budget, or the mortgage account. In the wake of HIRA's documented allegations of financial impropriety by party leaders, the consequences are getting real. Will Mary Smart participate in the corruption or will she join HIRA's call for an independent audit when she sees the cooked books and the years of unauthorized spending?
Finding out about Rohlfing's legal maneuvers from reading HIRA's newsletters, the extremely irritated Pat Saiki exclaimed that she "couldn't believe it". Saiki told the assembled leadership that she placed a phone call to the now-ousted party treasurer, at which time Saiki was told that Honjo didn't know anything about a 'blank check' authorization to pay a $4,500 retainer and $350 per hour to the Democrat union law firm led by a Democrat former attorney general under former governor George Ariyoshi.
Rohlfing reportedly squirmed when asked why he didn't find a pro bono lawyer, crying out that party counsel Calvin Chipchase
never returned his calls and no attorney would volunteer to take the ridiculous case Rohlfing fabricated against HIRA. The prospect of HRP paying tens of thousands of dollars in financial damages to HIRA for Rohlfing's frivolous lawsuit was not considered in any budget presented by Rohlfing to the State Committee for approval.
Could Rohlfing be personally liable for the costs, or will HRP donors be stuck with the legal debts?
As things got increasingly contentious, distraught party leaders began leaving the meeting. The financial misdeeds were too much for most attendees to stomach. Again stunning the audience was
Hellreich's revelation that as early as September, lawyers at the Republican National Committee advised Team Rohlfing to NOT pursue the frivolous litigation
.
By the end of the meeting, a downtrodden Rohlfing tried to placate the angry team of Saiki-Hellreich-Marumoto and other party leaders by denying that the thousands of donor dollars he spent were for the widely-publicized lawsuit. Instead, a nervous Rohlfing parsed words to explain that thousands of party dollars were diverted to a Democrat union law firm only to threaten HIRA, and Rohlfing incredulously added that he hoped settlement of the matter is imminent.
Members of the state committee wanted more information about the lawsuit. Though not a matter of personnel, Rohlfing offered an "executive session" with the smaller executive committee in hopes of secretly gaining approval for the lawsuit once Saiki, Hellreich and Marumoto cooled down. When his call for executive session was dismissed, Rohlfing quickly adjourned the meeting as it became abundantly clear that Rohlfing's lawsuit was not and would not be approved by either the executive committee or the state committee.
As party leaders filed out of party headquarters onto Kapiolani Boulevard, there were whispers of Fritz Rohlfing soon joining ousted party chairs David Chang and Jonah Kaauwai on the side of the road as deposed chairmen. "How can he steal party funds and not lose his job?"
The marathon meeting of the state committee also saw the State Committee's
failure to approve the mission critical plans and budgets required under party Rules,
with only one year to go until the next election. These include the 2016 Victory Plan, Strategic Plan, and Finance Plan.
One year since the last election has been completely wasted. With the committee not scheduled to meet for another 3 months,
HRP is now entering the 2016 election year hobbled by Rohlfing's decision to attack fellow Republicans rather than make an effort to beat Democrats.
Help HIRA to save the Hawaii GOP.
Please donate today to HIRA Action, the official SuperPAC for the Hawaii Republican Assembly, to support our legal defense and HIRA's work to educate voters about the Democrat failure.
Mahalo,
YOUR HAWAII REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLY
P.S.
Please help HIRA continue to provide a voice for conservatives.
Donate $10, $25, or $100 today. Help HIRA to
drain the swamp of corruption at the Hawaii GOP, so we can
drain the even bigger swamp at the State Capitol.
