Now that some of the details have become public in the extortion attempt against Gov. Linda Lingle's former chief of staff Bob Awana, it's time for Lingle to come clean on what she knew, when she knew it and what she did about it.

According to Pamela Byrne, attorney for the Indian national who pleaded guilty to trying to extort $35,000 from Awana, her client became jealous when Awana recruited his Filipina girlfriend and another woman to entertain himself and other members of a Hawai'i trade delegation to the Philippines in January 2006, when Awana was traveling with the governor.

Byrne said the Filipina woman was led to believe she would receive money and a chance to come to Hawai'i to complete her nursing studies if she accommodated Awana and his friends.

She said Rajdatta Patkar, 46, who was sentenced to a year in prison Monday, has been interviewed by federal authorities in an investigation of possible improprieties by state officials and others in the trade delegation.

Lingle has been silent on the matter since she and Awana decided it was in their mutual interest that he resign on June 29.

She said after that, "I don't have anything more to say. We're moving on."

She might have been able to get away with that when details were sparse and there was question as to whether Awana committed a private indiscretion that was nobody's business but his and his family's, or whether state business was involved.

If what Byrne says is true, state business was very much involved and the problem becomes Lingle's.

The governor waited to act until after this unbecoming behavior by her top aide became public and she had no choice but to do something. It was unlikely this was the first she had heard of it, since Awana had reported the extortion attempt to federal prosecutors some time earlier.

The questions are obvious: When did Lingle become aware of this tawdry behavior by top state officials and other members of the trade delegations she led? How widespread was the hanky-panky? What action did she take to stop the misconduct and discipline state officials involved?

Lingle has led a number of high-profile trade missions to Asia since taking office; she was supposed to be on one this month until she had to put it off because of the Legislature's special session on the Superferry.

The junkets have already been controversial because of the way the administration solicited private money to pay for them outside of normal procurement practices.

It's of grave concern that instead of enhancing Hawai'i's image on these trips, members of the delegations were engaging in sleazy behavior that disgraced us.

And Awana was not just any aide. He was Lingle's closest confidant, constantly at her side since she first ran for governor in 1998. He's perhaps the most powerful state official ever to resign under a cloud.

Lingle had to realize that these transgressions tarnished the state, and she made a mistake by not offering a full explanation of what she knew and what she did about it before the disturbing details came out in court.

She'll only compound the serious hit her personal reputation is taking if she continues her silence while a federal investigation develops potentially more embarrassing information.

Because of the high-level players and the bad light this sorry incident shines on Hawai'i, the questions are not going away and the governor will almost certainly be forced to disclose details of how she did or didn't handle it sooner or later.

It would be better for her and her constituents if it was sooner.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.