By Dick Miller:
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Attorney General Kathleen Kane continues to earn her credentials in the “Good Ole’ Boys” Republican-controlled Club that has long controlled Pennsylvania politics and government.
Last week, the nominal Democrat from Northeast PA announced her latest excuse for why she will not embarrass GOP Gov. Tom Corbett in his quest for re-election. Corbett has claimed he “slow-walked” his then-attorney-general investigation of convicted pedophile ex-Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky for good reason. Corbett said his investigators needed three years to convict Sandusky.
Critics, mostly partisan Democrats and Penn State Nation stalwarts, say Corbett took too long to bring Sandusky down because he was more concerned with the 2010 campaign for governor. He did not want the Sandusky investigation to compete with his election; at least until he had raised all money possible from those who would keep their wallets zipped had they known Corbett intended to scandalize the late Joe Paterno.
Corbett foes pointed to his decision to run Sandusky’s evidence through a grand jury, rare for a probe into the molestations of a pedophile. Corbett claims secrecy is necessary to get all victims to come forward. Some prosecutors maintain the grand jury route is too slow. The primary objective, they claim, should be to quickly get the molester off the streets.
This column, however, is about Kane’s role.
She reported last week that person or persons unknown deleted important emails in the Sandusky investigation within her office. Kane was the Democrats top vote getter in 2012 when she ended 32 years of Republican control of the elected attorney-general office.
While the outcomes of the 2012 Democrat primary and 2012 general election for attorney-general were never in doubt, her vote total may have been boosted by her promise to investigate Corbett’s handling of Sandusky.
As soon as she took office, Kane appointed H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr. to find out why “It took three years to investigate and charge Sandusky.” Inconsistencies and lack of legitimacy of this probe is documented in previous WeConnectDots columns and other bloggers and internet media.
Now, a year later, mainstream media is beginning to ask why “it is taking this long to investigate Corbett for how long it took him to investigate Sandusky.”
This Kane-Moulton probe takes place in a government bureau that was home base for the Sandusky probe and is now headed by Kane. A good percentage of people needing to be interviewed are lawyers, facing more serious consequences if they lie or are not cooperative. Some are likely to remain employees of the attorney-general even though Corbett has moved many into other departments of state government under his control.
If truth is the objective, Moulton could easily determine if Corbett found jobs for a suspiciously high number of those prosecutors and investigators involved in the Sandusky probe.
Verdicts against Sandusky are beginning to be appealed and may be on court dockets for years. Which begs this question. “Why would the attorney-general’s office destroy any notes, documents, videos, emails or anything relevant to Sandusky until all appeals have been exhausted?”
In addition, Kane now claims the Moulton report “will need judicial approval before it can be released.” Presumably, that would involve supervising grand jury judge Barry Feudale.
Feudale has been rubber-stamping Corbett’s actions even before the Sandusky probe, dating as far back as 2008 and the beginning of “Bonusgate.” The Judge allowed then A-G Corbett to issue subpoenas that pretended the future governor was investigating both political parties in the legislature.
A pattern began to appear where Corbett enforced subpoenas against Democrats quicker than those against Republicans did. Surprise-surprise, Democrat subpoenas revealed more incriminating evidence than slower-enforced demands for GOP evidence.
Bottom Line: Kane has already earned her spurs in the corrupt Republican “Good Ole Boys” Club. No matter when her report is released, or how critical it is of Corbett’s conduct, it will be too close to this year’s gubernatorial election to seem impartial.
