Yesterday we laid out the preview for today’s blog. If you didn’t read it you need to. Take some time and click here before continuing.
There. That’s better. Because you need that background to understand where we are today: diving into a 94 page document that is supposed to be a “transparent and truthful” accounting of how the freedmen got to vote in the election. Aside from the fact that S. Joe Crittenden (APCSJC) wanted them to because they “voted in June and voted in July and they may have helped put me in office. I believe they are entitled to vote again…” for his buddy Bill John Baker.
During this time, on September 13, APCSJC tells us that he is “pursuing political remedies that are in the best interest of the Cherokee Nation.”
The election is coming up on September 24. There is a federal court hearing on September 20, when a judge is going to rule on whether the election can even happen, since the freedmen aren’t citizens anymore. But when September 20 rolls around, Crittenden cuts a deal with the BIA and Freedmen that changes the rules of the elections and lets the Freedmen in. So obviously that was a busy week for him, between the 13th when he tells us he is ‘pursuing political remedies’ and the 20th when those remedies come to fruition. He even tells us that he is involved in the final nitty gritty of the deal making process: “We are still working out the final details, to be agreed upon among all the parties…”
So when asked for all the documents, notes, emails, etc. about this deal, and given that he has promised to be transparent and truthful, what does APCSJC give us? A big stinking pile of jack squat.
In the 94 page response seen here, there are emails and notes from all kinds of people, staff members and the attorney general. But very few from APCSJC himself. There are no emails from him to the BIA. There are no notes of any conversations he had with the BIA. There is no copy of any correspondence whatsoever between him and the BIA. There is no correspondence between him and the freedmen of any kind, even though APCSJC himself tells us “we are working out the final details to be agreed upon among all parties…” Did they communicate telepathically? Use one of those secret languages only twins understand? Or did APCSJC lie to us and hide documents? Or did he never actually do anything at all, but only farm out the work to heaven knows who?
There’s a lot of evidence pointing to the fact that ACPSJC didn’t do anything himself. For instance, there are several all-employee communications about the freedmen issue, (see pages 38, 39 and 40). They were all sent by someone other than APCSJC, but they are signed with his name. But there is no correspondence from APCSJC to those people showing that he actually wrote it! If this is all the correspondence then someone wrote all the letters for APCSJC and then sent them out with his name on it. There’s not even an email from APCSJC saying, yes, I approve of this draft you wrote!
But regardless, APCSJC is either hiding documents explaining why he decided to single-handedly agree to let freedmen be citizens even though our Constitution and Supreme Court say they can’t, or he didn’t make that decision himself at all and refuses to divulge who did actually make the decision.
To sum up, here's a short version of the TRUTH: APCSJC was asked for every scrap of information and documentation. He did not turn over any information or documentation about why he made the decision, even though he vowed to be truthful and transparent. He did not even explain why he didn't turn over the information.
Wow. More on this tomorrow, but if this is “truthful and transparent” we are in for a long four years.
