RELEASE THE TAPES: Anne Lopez Is Sitting on Recordings Hawaiʻi Voters Have a Right to Hear

It is an election year, and Attorney General Anne Lopez is sitting on recordings that could tell Hawaiʻi voters which lawmakers took the money and still won't release them.

As we have reported, this scandal began as a federal case. Former Rep. Ty Cullen and former Sen. J. Kalani English are convicted felons who accepted bribes from businessman Milton Choy. After his 2021 arrest, Cullen became an FBI informant and secretly recorded his colleagues. One recording captured a January 20, 2022, dinner at which an “influential state legislator” was allegedly handed $35,000. In January 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice turned over that evidence, including the FBI's recordings, to Attorney General Anne Lopez. It has sat in her office ever since.

What is on those tapes, and why can’t kānaka hear them?

We already know some of the names. Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke received a target letter and took an unpaid leave of absence. Lobbyist Tobi Solidum and a Luke campaign treasurer, Leo Asuncion Jr., also received target letters, for a total of three. A fourth official, Department of Human Services Director Ryan Yamane, resigned after the governor acknowledged that Yamane was part of the probe.

But the question that matters most in an election year remains unanswered: are there sitting legislators on those recordings, lawmakers who will be on your ballot this November, while the ʻoiaʻiʻo stays locked in a government drawer?

The AG’s own words tell the story.

On July 4, Lopez called the case “broader and more complex than initially anticipated.” Her office says investigators must follow the facts wherever they lead, even when that “expands the scope of the work.” Broader than Luke. Broader than Yamane. Broader than the names we already know. Even a respected local political analyst has asked aloud whether this is “the tip of the iceberg.”

Hawaiʻi’s kānaka deserve that answer before they vote, not after.

One rule for insiders, another for the public.

Here is the contrast that should anger every kamaʻāina family. When an ordinary person is arrested, their name and the allegations against them are public within a day. When a connected insider is caught on tape, the recording vanishes into a government office for a year and a half. The kūpuna who built this pae ʻāina, the keiki who will inherit it, and the working ʻohana who fund this government with every paycheck are told to wait, wait, and wait.

Enough delay. Enough secrecy. Enough shielding the powerful while voters are kept in the dark.

Anne Lopez has a kuleana to the public.

We take confidentiality seriously. Lopez says that improperly releasing evidence “would violate my oath of office,” and she is right that no one should be convicted in the court of public opinion. Due process is sacred. But there is a difference between protecting a fair trial and imposing a total blackout, and the stakes are higher when the people implicated may be asking for your vote in a matter of months.

We call on Attorney General Anne Lopez to do one of two things before ballots go out: release the recordings the DOJ gave her office or tell Hawaiʻi plainly whether any sitting, ballot-bound legislator is a subject of this probe.

The lā koho is coming. The people are watching. And they will not vote in the dark.