Hawaii Republican leaders secretly met with Miske Hitman Lindsey Kinney
How Miske Hitman ‘Kleaned House’ in Three Political Parties
Sovereignty activists believe in ‘Q-Anon’ too
by Andrew Walden
Alleged hitman Lindsey Kinney’s beheading threats against Waianae harbormaster Joseph Simpliciano and his family burst across the airwaves after Kinney was arrested by the FBI April 13, 2022.
Prosecutors planning to use Kinney as a witness against alleged underworld kingpin Michael Miske instead found themselves charging Kinney with new crimes. The courts acted quickly. Kinney was sentenced to 37 months in a federal penitentiary and, according to the Bureau of Prisons, is currently being held at Lompoc USP with a release date of November 28, 2024.
Kinney’s threats came after Simpliciano, on the job, January 11, 2022, challenged Eric C. Nelson, a convicted felon who calls himself ‘Colonel Lilikoi’ of the ‘Occupied Forces Army Hawaii,’ over $30,000 in unpaid dock fees and salvage expenses owed to DLNR.
What has not been reported until now: The threats were part of a dispute among sovereignty activists. Simpliciano had been the 2020 Aloha Aina Party candidate for House District 44-Waianae. The fear factor helped the Q-Anon oriented ‘Klean House Hawaii’ (KHH) faction gain control over the Aloha Aina Party. It was the first step in what would end up as a failed scheme to remake Hawaii’s political landscape.
In a Facebook message introduced as evidence in his trial, (p39) Kinney warns Simpliciano, “try and think you can run for representative again.”
Meet Kinney’s Political Team
After posting the beheading threats, Kinney pulled papers March 11, 2022, to run for Governor in the 2022 election. The Kinney for Governor campaign contact email, “buildteam50,” belongs to 2020 Aloha Aina HD43 candidate and ‘Klean House’ activist Shaena Dela Cruz Hoohuli. In 2022, Dela Cruz filed papers to run for Lt Governor but then withdrew. For 2024, Dela Cruz has used the same “buildteam50” email address to pull papers for Council District 1 and for the Republican nomination for HD44.
In 2020, Campaign Spending records show Dela Cruz’ husband was her campaign chair. Then she met Kinney. According to E Court Kokua, March 28, 2022, Dela Cruz sued her husband for divorce. The case stalled after Kinney was dragged off to jail. Then on February 2, 2024, Dela Cruz’ husband sued her for divorce.
As part of a scheme to seize control of the Aloha Aina Party, KHH activist Dan Decker, starting in 2020, and Dela Cruz, starting in 2022, registered themselves with DCCA BREG as officers of the so-called “Aloha Aina National Committee, LLC.” Decker would run for US Senate under the Aloha Aina banner in 2022.
After blogger Ian Lind exposed the scheme in a series of October and November, 2020, columns, one angry Aloha Aina member complained:
It’s a ‘hostile takeover’ by Daniel Decker and his company. Daniel Decker was proven to be a fraud trying to take down leadership of the AAP. His gripe with the AAP leadership is that they did not approve a loan set up by Decker. He requested to step down as treasurer to manage the candidates of AAP. Why? Because if the loan got approved by the leadership, Decker would get paid. The loan was not approved, because we have no money to back it up. Everyone working for the Aloha Aina Party has normal jobs and bills. No one gets paid to do this on the side, it’s hard work. Daniel Decker has turn the party to LLC and make himself leader of AAP which is entirely fraudulent. He will be in prison.
But after Kinney and Dela Cruz entered the picture, resistance evaporated.
Hawai’i Free Press emailed “buildteam50” seeking comment from Dela Cruz. A ‘no comment’ response came from Dan Decker identifying himself as chair of “Friends of Shaena Dela Cruz Hoohuli” -- a campaign committee not registered with the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission. He did not respond to a further request for comment.
Questioned by Hawai’i Free Press, ‘Klean House Hawaii’ leader Karl Dicks admits Kinney is “someone I know and have met.” Dicks also claims, “Mitske (sic) owes me 10 k for gate I made for his house.”
As described by Dicks in KHH Signal Chat messages above, Dicks visited Lindsey along with Dela Cruz and 'Char' -- former Hawaii Republican Party leader Charlotte Rosecrans. In Spring, 2022, just before his arrest, Kinney's 'home' was a Kaneohe Wong's Village property stolen from an 85 year old HPU Professor. At the time, Dicks was a Republican House District Chair and member of the Hawaii Republican State Committee.
Iowa-born Dicks is a self-styled sovereignty activist and reputedly a follower of Dennis Ragsdale’s ‘Kingdom of Hawai’i’ group. Asked about Ragsdale, Dicks describes him as, “My mentor and friend of over 30 years. Extremely knowledgeable.”
As a 2020 Honolulu Mayoral candidate, Dicks promised to “settle the dispute with the overthrow of the Kingdom.” He got 358 votes, coming in 14th out of 15 candidates. Then he sued, calling the other candidates ‘illegitimate’ and demanding they be retroactively stricken from the ballot so he could be named mayor. Oddly enough, the courts didn’t see it that way.
Dicks has pulled papers to run for Mayor again in 2024.
Cynical? Dicks tells Hawai'i Free Press, Q-Anon is "just letters (to me)."
A source informs Hawai’i Free Press, Dela Cruz met Kinney at Hawaii Kai Trump truck rallies in 2020 while Kinney was distributing flash drives full of Q-Anon conspiracy theories about Miske. Apparently the flash drives were retaliation after Miske allegedly attempted to kill Lindsey at a Kualoa Ranch movie set.
Dicks tells Hawai’i Free Press about Kinney’s flash drive:
“I did not see it when I was there (at Lindsey’s house). I never went in the house. I do know about the flash drive. I had one that I never put into a computer nor have I seen what was on it. I figured it was a set up to plant a bug or whatever into my system. (KHH activist) Hector (Vivo) gave it to me….tunnels, pedo stuff, trafficking etc, evidence is what I was told is on it. TOOOOO risky for me, wanted nothing to do with it. Megan Kau is a player from what I was told. Miske is strange dude for sure. I have no first hand knowledge of any of it, nor any doubt it is true!!!!”
Klean House 2022: Kinney for Governor, Dela Cruz for Lt Governor, Decker for Senate.
Klean House 2024: Dicks for Mayor, Dela Cruz for Council.
August 17, 2022, Decker filed a lawsuit, copied almost word-for -word from a similar suit filed by Dicks, seeking the removal of the Republican Party from the Hawaii election ballot. It is one of 13 suits filed by KHH activists between 2020 and 2023. All have been tossed out of court.
In the midst of Kinney’s threats, Kinney’s associates in the ‘Klean House Hawaii’ (KHH) faction came close to gaining control of the Hawaii Republican Party--while suing to remove it from the ballot. Apparently their plan was to knock Republicans off the ballot so the Aloha Aina Party could become the ‘second party’ in Hawaii.
In one Signal chat, Klean House can be seen plotting to ‘Free Lindsey Kinney’ while KHH activist Charlotte Rosecrans plans her run for Hawaii Republican Party Chair at the 2023 Hawaii Republican Convention. Several leading Republicans, including Jaime Padilla, a 2021 candidate for State GOP Chair pop up in this Klean House chat. Rosecrans got 40% of the vote for Party Chair at the May, 2023, Republican State Convention in Hilo.
Due to lack of votes, the Aloha Aina Party lost its ballot status after the 2022 elections. Decker and Dela Cruz failed to gather enough petition signatures to reestablish it.
KHH then attempted to take over the Hawaii Libertarian Party, beginning with its August, 2023, convention, where Decker, Dicks, and other KHH activists were elected to the Hawaii Libertarian Executive Committee. But, in January, 2024, they were ousted by Libertarian regulars after discovery of a Karl Dicks bogus FBI informant chain letter scheme.
Ironically, this leaves Hawaii Republicans as the only political party with a remaining KHH influence.
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2010: University of Hawaii Study: Native Hawaiians Fear Violence
2023: Can Hawaii Republicans Stop Vexatious Litigants?
2024: FBI Illegal Disruption of Hawaii Republicans?
2024: 'FBI' Chain Letter Scheme Entraps Hawaii Republicans and Libertarians