“concealment which is not only a violation of Hawaii law but in this context a federal crime, violating 18 USC 1001 - the Federal General False Statement Act.”
I’m no lawyer, but it would surprise me greatly if a federal statute governed the behavior of a state official while in office. This would appear to pose rather severe separation-of-powers questions. After all, if the federal can penalize (and perhaps imprison?) a state official for how they conduct their duties, what’s to prevent them from passing a law to heavily fine or imprison any governor who refuses to remit 50% of all state tax collections to Uncle Sam?
Strange how the *stolen honor* case was decided.
i.e. it is not against the law to lie about qualifications or un-earned status.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Was Blagojevich a federal official? What they finally got him on was exactly this federal statute, but he was acting in the capacity of an ILLINOIS official, trying to sell a Senate seat.
The role a person is playing doesn’t matter; all that matters to the law is whether a federal issue is impacted and whether the person had a legal duty to not conceal. And Hawaii law is clear that it is required that Administrative Rules be posted on the websites of the HI agencies.