'FBI' Chain Letter Scheme Entraps Hawaii Republicans and Libertarians
by Andrew Walden (Updated Jan 27, 2024)
“I am an official informant.”
Klean House Hawaii (KHH) and Hawaii Libertarian Party leader Karl Dicks brandishes the letter like a badge.
But his ‘FBI - NSA volunteer informant’ letter is really a method for qualifying sales prospects.
Many may dismiss Dicks’ letter as nonsense written by a crackpot best known for failed pro-se litigation. But as the letter is shown around conspiracy-laden circles, a display of interest marks the prospect as somebody who can be manipulated.
It is difficult to know how many have signed an ‘official informant letter’—complete with their social security number (which we have redacted above).
If the prospective ‘informant’ signs his own NSA volunteer letter, Dicks becomes his ‘handler.’ The letter creates a delusion that any ‘informant’ actions are sanctioned by law enforcement. This illusory protection makes the signer more likely to commit illegal acts—and thereby get entrapped.
Dicks sprinkles his social media posts with loose talk -- bait for the illegally-minded?
UPDATE: 'Eric from Maui' at Top of the Chain?
In an audio-recorded December 5, 2023, conversation (begin at 13:30) with Hawaii Libertarian State Chair Austin Martin, Libertarian Party Treasurer Dan Decker explains:
Decker: “I was telling Robert (Santillan) last night about this guy ‘Eric from Maui’ that’s Karl (Dicks’) contact in the NSA.
“I asked (Karl), ‘How do you get this job? How do you sign up?’ …
“'There’s this guy from Maui, Eric.’
“So I referred that story back to Robert (Santillan) and he’s like, ‘Oh yeah. That’s Eric Ryan.’”
“From HIRA? So Eric Ryan is with NSA, too?
“Cause Karl (Dicks) was like, ‘Let’s turn your letter in.’
“And I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s turn it in. Who’s it going to?’
“'Eric on Maui.’
Martin: “So Eric Ryan of HIRA is the one recruiting these NSA volunteers.”
Decker: “That’s it. Here’s the story. Robert (Santillan) was there with Karl (Dicks), Eric Ryan, (HIRA activist) Kai (Lorinc), and Robert said ‘Kai blew their cover.’ That’s what Robert and I were discussing last night.”
Karl Dicks knows that long-time Hawaii GOP gadfly Eric Ryan lives in Ewa Beach, not Maui.
When Eric Ryan finally responded to Hawai'i Free Press' request for comment, he suggested the source of the FBI-NSA Volunteer letter is MauiVision magazine publisher Eric Richter. Ryan points out that Richter's FB page describes Richter as "Public Relations Volunteer, Trainer, Ops at NSA - National Security Agency." According to his FB page, Richter is also "food server at The Plantation House."
In a telephone interview with Hawai'i Free Press, Richter acknowledges he did supply Dicks with the original template for the FBI-NSA letter in August, 2020, but says he has not been receiving letters 'forwarded' by Dicks or others.
"I would assume that pretending to be any law enforcement officer is a crime.” -- Steve Lipscomb
Honolulu Republican Party Chair Steve Lipscomb is a signer of Karl Dicks’ April, 2022, ‘Formal Complaint’ seeking the removal of the Republican Party from the ballot in Hawaii. (see pg 20-24). Lipscomb is also listed as membership coordinator of the Honolulu FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association, an organization which, in the words of former Honolulu Special Agent In Charge, Vida Bottom, “has been a part of the FBI Honolulu Division for many years as all members are graduates of the Honolulu Citizens Academy or retirees of the FBI Honolulu Division.”
Dicks and Lipscomb know more about the resignation of Charlotte Rosecrans than most Republicans.
KHH activist and Hawaii Libertarian Party Executive Board member Robert Santillan is co-plaintiff on several Dicks lawsuits. In an audio-recorded conversation with Hawaii Libertarian Party Chair Austin Martin (start at 24:00 mark), Santillan describes the reaction to Hawai’i Free Press’ publication of ‘FBI Illegal Disruption of Hawaii Republicans?’:
“I know Steve (Lipscomb) personally. We’re both county chairs. We talk…. Two weeks ago when that (Hawai’i Free Press) story came out, I texted Stave and I sent it to Karl (Dicks) and Dan (Decker). I said ‘HRP, which is the Oahu League of Witches, is trying to get rid of you .... And (KHH member) Charlotte (Rosecrans) fu**ing bailed. (In November, Rosecrans resigned as Oahu GOP Vice Chair and Republican Party member.) She’s like: ‘F*** this. I’m out.’ Steve’s a good guy. They exposed his FBI affiliation which is a cover story, right…. I know Steve. He’s a good guy. I will give him a text and he will text me back… I said: ‘Hey, they’re coming after you. Did you see this story (in Hawai’i Free Press)?’ …
“(Steve and I) were on Signal before the (Honolulu Republican Party) Convention over a year ago.... I got him elected. I brought in four delegates, and I got him elected County Chair…. He’d listen…. ‘You just got over on Mele fu**in Songsong, fat f**king a** Asian girl, who dimed you out because you’re on a court case and I’m on a court case (to remove the Republican Party from the ballot). She named all our names out in the Convention.’ I told him, ‘She is after you, bro. You need to be her friend.’ Well, he became friends with Mele Songsong. Charlotte (Rosecrans) didn’t want anything to do with that. So yeah, he might be FBI….
"I’m going to keep Steve Lipscomb very close. He’s a County Chair. I’m a County Chair. We’re going to get the right people in the positions in this county. You guys on the Big Island need to do the same fu**ing thing…. That’s all this is. It’s a big fu**ing adventure.”
Asked for comment on the Dicks letter, Steve Lipscomb tells Hawai'i Free Press, "I have no knowledge or understanding of the attached letter…. I would assume that pretending to be any law enforcement officer is a crime.”
With KHH now trying to gain control of the Hawaii Libertarian Party, Dicks got himself elected to the Libertarian Executive Board at the Libertarian State Convention in August.
Now he is allegedly soliciting other LP Executive Board members to sign up as ‘informants.’
How many KHH on Libertarian Executive Board? At one point, Dicks believed it was 8 out of 9.
UPDATE: The audio-recorded December 5, 2023, conversation (begin at 59:00) between Martin and Decker also reveals how Martin was recruited to KHH, beginning in July, 2022, after Martin was ejected and banned from the Hilo Election Center for questioning election procedures as an observer from the Hawaii Libertarian Party:
MARTIN: “Right after everything went down with the (Hilo) counting center, right after that. (KHH member) Sue (Hughes) was there just as a (Republican) election observer…. She called me after I was removed from duty and told me about her friend Karl (Dicks) that she knew through other people that were in the KHH group. She’s like, ‘They’re fighting for election integrity and they’re working together and they want to hear what you have to say ….’
“But first she said she wanted me to talk to Karl…. She kept bugging me about it and reminding me, and asked if she could give him my number. So I said, ‘Yeah,’ and Karl called me. And he was like apparently very impressed and he’d done a little looking into my court filings and stuff that I’ve done and he basically flattered me.
“We talked for a good long time. … He was blowing a lot of smoke up my ass. He was trying to force a bond. And then he invited me to go to Oahu and meet him and stay overnight at his house….
“It was a little weird, but, considering what was going on, and I knew he was running for office (SD17 GOP Primary) which made him seem fairly safe—like somebody who would want to talk to me. And I don’t know how big he is or how well regarded he is…. I just know this dude is running for a seat that I saw on my test ballots….
“I decided to take him up on it because, after all, I’d just witnessed election fraud and got removed for it ….
“He invited me out to his house. We talked. There wasn’t any real point to it. Nothing significant really happened. I made an affidavit. We talked. We strategized. But really it was an excuse for him to meet me. He wanted to meet me in person….
“After that I was at KHH and he asked me to speak to his group and … there was a lot of Republicans there and they were talking sh*t about the Hawaii Republican Party and their leadership about the money laundering scam (See: Holck FEC Oct 2022) and all that stuff that was going on. They were talking about the election fraud as well. That was like the main topic at the time. Demanding the past vote records and trying to get people on board with various things.
“At that time there were real election integrity activists that were really actually working in those groups together. So it wasn’t like it is today when there’s nobody there and nothing going on.
“Everybody left at one point—at two or three points, actually….”
DECKER: “They like us to stay after the meetings and chat. Like hey, chat some more….”
MARTIN: “Under the circumstances, there could be something a little more pernicious to this….
“They’re running it like an official group, but there’s no group. And Karl (Dicks) boasts about that all the time as if we’re some kind of ghost. That we’ve tricked the system….
“They’re attracting people who are upset about COVID mandates, and election fraud and the whole J6 thing and all of that. They’re bringing them into the same place and they’re encouraging them to basically fulfill the stereotypes that the leftists want to say against us ….
Two years later, Martin becomes Chair of the Hawaii Libertarian Party. And Dicks is trying to recruit him again--this time as an 'informant'.
Interviewed on the Conservative Daily podcast, January 23, 2024, Martin explains:
“I confronted (KHH) and I recorded the phone conversations and they admitted it. I believe they were trying to recruit me. They wanted me to sign a similar letter. And they also tried to recruit our (Hawaii Libertarian Party) Treasurer.
“These guys are dead serious. When confronted, the conversation is not, ‘Oh no, we’re not spies.’ The conversation is, ‘What’s wrong with having spies controlling your political parties? What’s wrong with that?’.…
“The number of these people on our tiny organization is staggering. Four out of nine on our Board are directly associated….”
Dicks did not respond to an emailed request for comment on this article. But after the Libertarian State Convention, Dicks told Hawai’i Free Press: “It was a good day yesterday. I am on executive committee of Libertarian Party as Secretary and other Klean House Hawaii leaning people have majority vote as per close of convention. Is my crack pot plan starting to interest you?”
Austin Martin continues:
“(KHH members) sent me money unsolicited on several occasions. Then they try to pull it on me—like they own me…. A federal informant sent me money. That’s the point. They believe that if they help you, you owe them. The will use that to full effect and they will take everything that you say and use it against you.
“This is a scary, spooky thing that came to my attention over the last couple of weeks. Somebody I thought was a close friend of mine gave me a letter; signed, saying he was an official informant or a volunteer, a spy for the NSA, the FBI and other alphabet soup agencies and that all of his communications, all of his electronic devices were open to the US government for monitoring and tapping.
“When I first saw this letter I kind of dismissed it as …this guy was crazy. I didn’t think of it as the threat….
“A few days later I received a tip … about this guy who was with the Hawaii Chapter of the FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association. These are like the FBI wannabees in each state who have some training and then they train civilians to be spies and then feed this information back to the agency.
“They embed these people in various organizations and this is how they (FBI) use private civilian gloves to get around Fourth and First Amendment restrictions on (FBI) activities….
Who will be arrested?
Here is an exchange between Conservative Daily interviewer David Clements and Austin Martin:
Clements: “Do these federal informants seem like they are high-functioning--or do you feel like they are just crazy people that the feds have tapped because they are crazy….”
Martin: “They’re patsies. I don’t know if they know it, but they’re getting set up, too. Karl (Dicks) is convinced that this letter somehow protects him and his family. It doesn’t….
“It’s not like these (KHH) are paid government agents. These are volunteers—wannabees. These are civilian guys that the (FBI) is taking advantage of to get around First and Fourth Amendment requirements. And they don’t mind if these guys go to jail…. These guys are pawns and they’re pseudo-deputized. You have a field agent who says ‘We like this organization. We’re going to do community outreach through this organization. We’ll let you guys make assets for us.’ And they basically let those guys turn around and deputize their friends as informants, too. And you let every gang member have some kind of connection to a federal informant. That’s what it’s like out here.”
Clements: “Patsies will start having their chat groups. They’ll start inserting all of the ‘insurrection invective’ and if you are in the room, if you’re part of that … it’s easy to launch a grenade … ‘you’re under investigation because here are some screen shots from a chat room with all of these guys here that are talking about taking over the government with guns and zip-ties….’ It’s their drama and craziness that gets imputed to people who aren’t crazy.”
--- PAU ---
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