ConAlt zeroes in on one aspect of the RMA’s case against Wray: that the investigative unit tracking Hinson purported to be part of a federal investigation.
From the report:
…Wray made several deceptive and misleading references not only behind the investigation of Hinson, but why the department was allegedly unable to address serious internal issues until then. His assertion that doing so earlier would have compromised in some manner the efforts of the “multi-agency” effort (OCDETF).
This was after Wray ran the press release announcing Hinson’s suspension pass the feds, who signed off only after Wray removed
any references to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the use of the words federal and international, the use of the acronym OCDETF. In other words, the U.S. Attorney’s office emphasized the fact that at no time was Hinson the target of, a suspect in, or a person of interest in any federal investigation and they did not want to have their office connected to the police department’s personnel matter.”
While the first part of the sentence might be fact, the second part is an inference, is it not? Were the feds really emphasizing that Hinson was of no federal interest when they edited Wray’s press release?
ConAlt writes:
The RMA characterizes the US Attorney’s request by stating “In other words, the US Attorney emphasized the fact that at no time was Hinson the target of, a suspect in, or a person of any interest in any federal investigation”. That is a gross liberty in translation and conclusions to be made from a mere request to remove specific references by the US Attorney. Hinson may not have been any of those things, but that doesn’t mean that Wray had no reason to be concerned that his investigation of Hinson could effect the US Attorney’s investigation. As mentioned above, the connections to the actual targets are there and the subsequent publication in the Rhino of information about Hinson’s links to those people have drawn some ire from the US Attorney’s office. This could be precisely what Wray was trying to prevent…..So Wray was not off the mark about mentioning the multi-jurisdictional aspects of matters where Hinson had some connection ergo “connect the dots”.
So, “in other words,” it was not misleading to say that James Hinson was linked to a federal investigation.