Exactly what were the statements?
You can see the statements at http://butterdezillion.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/red-flags-in-hawaii-2/ .
To understand them, you need to know that every legal source there is says that when a department denies access to a record they are admitting that the record exists, unless they Glomarize the response (such as, for instance, saying “Access to the records, IF ANY, is denied because...”
They gave a non-Glomarized denial of access to the records of Obama’s amendment. When the denial of access was appealed to the OIP the OIP attorney confirmed that it was a denial of access AND that it was a PROPER denial - which would not be a proper response according to OIP rules if the records didn’t exist. The OIP attorney had said twice that if the records don’t exist the HDOH should say that, and the OIP rules also make that clear.