Political Influence and the Courts

Teresa McCoy, Big Cove Tribal Council Representative, has introduced legislation that would make it a crime for elected officials to use intimidation, bribery or deception to influence decisions of the tribal court. This issue has come up time and time again, and both tribal court leaders and tribal elected officials have claimed that no such influence occurs.
While there is nothing to document such influence, here are a couple of major concerns.
All tribal employees' paychecks are signed by the principal chief and the vice chief. This is particular concern with such entities that should be free of political influence, particularly the courts.
While there's much talk about how chummy some elected officials are with judges and justices, this is verifiable. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Toineeta-Pipestem is married to a Washington lobbyist, whose contract with the tribe is something of which the principal chief has direct authority.
Bribery, intimidation, obstruction of justice in the justice system is something that should already be considered felony charges, but waiting for the feds, who have jurisdiction, would cause one to lose all hope. There's no harm in addressing this issue on the local level.