Attorney General Ed Buckingham said yesterday that the documents allegedly \u201cleaked\u201d by an anonymous source are not official and as such, no one can say if they are authentic or verify who wrote them.<\/p>\n
The media showed a leaked copy of the Office of the Public Auditor report to Buckingham yesterday afternoon to ask whether it\u2019s the same report he received in December 2010. But he questioned the authenticity of the documents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe documents that were \u2018leaked\u2019 today were not officially released. Not from the Governor. Not from OPA [Office of the Public Auditor]. The source of these documents remains anonymous,\u201d Buckingham said in a statement late yesterday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Conversely, he said, he has always been open and forthright about this matter and has done nothing in secret. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen OPA launched this investigation, I instructed everyone in my office to cooperate fully. Furthermore, I have gone on record as to what happened at the dinner that night,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
A copy of OPA\u2019s Dec. 13, 2010 \u201cReport and recommendation of ethics investigation of Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham\u201d and the accompanying two-page letter from Public Auditor Michael Pai to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos was leaked by an anonymous individual to the media and some members of the public on Tuesday night. Others got them Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
OPA\u2019s investigation report concluded that Buckingham\u2019s actions \u201cviolated criminal prohibitions\u201d of both the Commonwealth Ethics Code Act and the Commonwealth Election Act when he hosted a campaign party for then delegate candidate Joseph N. Camacho at the governor\u2019s private residence in Gualo Rai on Aug. 28, 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I do not know the motive for releasing these documents, I trust that the public will make an informed evaluation before relying on rumors. I hope that the people of the CNMI will judge our office by the good results we have produced, rather than by anonymous documents,\u201d Buckingham said.<\/p>\n
Acting governor Eloy S. Inos also questioned the authenticity of the documents, a copy of which was also shown him by the media yesterday afternoon.<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019s concerned that such a report, which he said is supposed to be confidential, was leaked. He did not want to comment further. <\/p>\n
The anonymous source who leaked a copy of the OPA report and accompanying letter to Fitial and Inos, said: \u201cThis report has been sealed since December 2010, by law and by the refusal of the governor and attorney general to release it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo this day, there has been no justice. No one has been held accountable. Buckingham is still the highest legal authority in the Commonwealth,\u201d said the anonymous source, who used the email spnwikileaks@hushmail.com to release the report.<\/p>\n
The source said \u201cprincipled leaking of information has changed the course of history for the better. It can alter the course of history in the present, and it can lead us to a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur government should be subject to the pressure, not merely of federal oversight, Open Government Act requests, or even periodic elections, but of something far stronger\u2014the consciences of the people within it,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n
Buckingham said OPA holds a powerful and necessary position, including conducting investigations and reporting its findings to the governor. <\/p>\n
\u201cOPA investigators have access to large amounts of confidential information and are given wide discretion in making investigations; for this reason, reports must remain confidential unless the governor chooses to disclose them,\u201d the attorney general said.<\/p>\n
As to the dinner at the governor\u2019s place, Buckingham said he \u201cnever instructed anyone to vote for any candidate\u2014either in my \u2018official\u2019 capacity as attorney general or as a private citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he has never endorsed a candidate, recused himself from participating in the electoral process, and did not even vote in the election.<\/p>\n
Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP), who also received a copy of the leaked document, said the AG \u201cbroke the law.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sablan said that if the AG did nothing wrong, he should have released the report in December.<\/p>\n
Glen Hunter, a citizen who also received a leaked copy of the report, said he is \u201cnow even more confident that results of investigations that concern our public officials should not be kept hidden.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems only proper that when a citizen discovers and reports abuses perpetrated by those who are in positions of power and authority, the results of those investigations be made public as soon as possible in order to restore our confidence. Should the investigations reveal, as in this case, that misconduct by a public official has occurred, proper actions must be taken to quickly remedy the breach of public trust,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the system of law as it stands now, and as the CNMI has now discovered through the revelation of the leaked OPA report, \u201cdoes not protect the citizens from corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing forward I intend to work with other concerned individuals on drafting legislation that correct the flaws in our laws that currently allow for corruption to occur unchecked as in this instance,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Attorney General Ed Buckingham said yesterday that the documents allegedly \u201cleaked\u201d by an anonymous source are not official and as such, no one can say if they are authentic or verify who wrote them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}