HONOLULU — Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees and CEO Kamanaopono Crabbe are discussing Crabbe’s fate in a closed-door meeting.
About 80 onlookers packed the agency’s board room in boisterous support of Crabbe Monday before the closed-door session began.
Crabbe and the trustees have been tangled in an awkward public spat over a letter he sent to Secretary of State John Kerry on May 5.
In the letter, Crabbe asked for a legal opinion on whether the Kingdom of Hawaii might still exist under international law. One reason he cited in the letter was the U.S. government’s acknowledgement that the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Hawaii Kingdom in 1893 was illegal.
The letter questioned whether OHA might be violating international law as it pursues the creation of a Native Hawaiian governing entity.