The Daily Mail exclusively revealed how Massachusetts state police are covering up basic information regarding the drowning of Barack Obama’s personal chef while still labelling his death an “accident.”
As Gateway Pundit readers know, 45-year-old Tafari Campbell met his tragic end 11 days ago while paddle boarding on Great Edgartown Pond, Martha’s Vineyard, on Sunday night. A female companion was reportedly paddle boarding with him.
Barack and Michelle Obama were not at home when Campbell drowned but were on the island.
Massachusetts police are citing a Public Records Law exemption that allows them to withhold any information that could jeopardize an active investigation. Characterizing the incident as an accident allows the police to do this.
Justin Silverman, the head of the region’s First Amendment coalition explained to the Daily Mail that police are abusing the public records law after ruling out foul play.
The burden is on law enforcement to show how their investigation may be jeopardized by releasing certain information. And they’re not doing that right now. This really flies in the face of Public Records Law.
The cover-up goes even deeper, though. State police officials are making sure that other agencies involved in the response follow their lead.
They have even armed departments with rejection letters to send to the media, which has been bombarding agencies with questions.
Here is what one of them says:
Hello. At this time, we will not be releasing any recordings or materials, the message read, and cited the state Public Records Law, noting it exempts the release of records that ‘would probably so prejudice the possibility of effective law enforcement that such disclosure would not be in the public interest.
The exemption allows investigative officials to withhold materials that could compromise investigative efforts if disclosed.
Major Susan Schofield, the supervisor of communications for the sheriff’s office, only made excuses when pressed by the Daily Mail.
Sorry, I’m trying to abide by the law. Obviously, we’re getting a lot of requests and we don’t like to not give out information, but we can’t.
State police are investigating, and we can’t release information.
The only matter supposedly pending is a toxicology report that could show whether Campbell had drugs in his system or suffered some sort of medical episode.
Campbell, who could swim as evidenced by a video he’d previously posted, was found in eight feet deep water without a life jacket and wasn’t tethered to his board.
Despite the mysterious tragedy, life is normal for the Obama family. As Jim Hoft notes, Sasha and Malia Obama left the island on last Tuesday, while Barack and Michelle Obama resumed some of their regular activities last Friday.
Michelle was spotted playing tennis at the local Farm Neck country club, and Barack was seen playing golf at the Vineyard Golf Club with bandaged fingers.
Now the question is what, if anything, are the police hiding?
This story originally appeared on TheGateWayPundit
