Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (WPVI) -- Criminal charges have been filed against Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane after an ongoing investigation into a grand jury leak.
She has been charged with perjury, obstruction, abuse of office, and other offenses.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman announced the charges at a news conference Thursday morning.
"This is a sad day for Pennsylvania, and this is a sad day for all of us in law enforcement," Ferman said.
The state's top prosecutor is accused of disclosing information about a 2009 grand jury investigation to the Philadelphia Daily News last year, and lying about her actions under oath.
Kane allegedly leaked information to a political operative to pass to the news media "in hopes of embarrassing and harming former state prosecutors she believed, without evidence, made her look bad," Ferman said.
A statewide grand jury recommended in December that Kane be charged with criminal contempt, perjury, obstruction, false swearing and official oppression.
The grand jury's recommendations were then referred to Ferman, along with a later allegation that she fired a staff prosecutor whose testimony helped build the leak case against her.
Kane has consistently denied that she broke any laws. The 49-year-old has acknowledged giving information to the Daily News, but denied it was bound by secrecy laws and said she hasn't broken any laws. She also contended the prosecutor was fired for job-related performance, not revenge.
In response to the charges, Kane released the following statement:
"I am very disappointed the district attorney has made the decision to pursue this case. I have maintained my innocence from the day these allegations surfaced and I continue to do so today. I intend to defend myself vigorously against these charges. I look forward to the opportunity to present my case in a public courtroom and move beyond the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that has defined the process to this point. Meanwhile, I remain committed to leading the Office of Attorney General and doing the job the citizens of this Commonwealth elected me to do. A resignation would be an admission of guilt and I'm not guilty. I assure everyone the Office of Attorney General will continue to fulfill its mission to protect and serve the citizens of Pennsylvania."
Kane's 2012 election victory made her the first woman and the first Democrat to be elected Pennsylvania state attorney general. But today's criminal charges mark a new low in her tumultuous three-year tenure, further weakening her shaky hold on an office that has seen an exodus of top aides, fumbled corruption cases, feuds with former prosecutors and misstatements she later had to retract.
Kane has vowed to run for office again in 2016. She has accused her critics and investigators of trying to undermine her because she had dared to take on a corrupt, old-boy law enforcement network. Newspaper editorial boards across the state have called for her to resign.
Relying heavily on her trucking magnate husband's wealth, the Scranton native campaigned as a disrupter of the status quo and pledged to investigate whether politics played a role in the three years it took to investigate and charge former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky with child sex abuse crimes.
At first, Democrats lauded the former Lackawanna County prosecutor as a rising political star. They cheered her for refusing to defend Pennsylvania's law banning recognition of gay marriage and rejecting then-Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's contract with a private firm to run the Pennsylvania Lottery. Some Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, accused her of playing politics and raised talk of impeachment.
http://6abc.com/politics/kathleen-kane-officially-charged-in-grand-jury-leak-investigation/905084/