”A resignation would be an admission of guilt and I’m not guilty.” – Kane
By Kevin Zwick
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
NORRISTOWN (Aug. 6) – Attorney General Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s chief law enforcement officer, allegedly “devised a scheme” to secretly leak confidential information and grand jury materials to damage political opponents, and then “repeatedly lied” before a grand jury to cover it up, said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, who filed criminal charges against Kane Thursday.
While he asserted she’s entitled to defend herself through the legal process, Gov. Tom Wolf stated Kane should, now that charges have been filed against her, “step down as attorney general, because I think she cannot do what she has to do as the top law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania while she’s facing these serious charges.”
It does not appear, at this time, Kane intends to step aside, as suggested by Wolf and many others in and around Pennsylvania state government.
“I intend to defend myself vigorously against these charges,” said Kane in a statement. “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.”
She continued, “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.”
Ferman, a Republican, charged Kane, the first woman and Democrat elected attorney general, with charges including perjury, obstruction, false swearing and official oppression, for violations of the Grand Jury Act and the Criminal History Records Information Act. CLICK HERE to read the criminal complaint filed against Kane.
“No one is above the law, not even the chief law enforcement officer of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Ferman said during a news conference where she, flanked by county prosecutors and detectives, outlined the charges against Kane.
The “motive” for the leak, according to charging documents, was to discredit former top Office of Attorney General prosecutor Frank Fina, who was locked in a bitter public battle with Kane over the handling of past investigations.
“I will not allow them to discredit me or our office. This is war,” Kane said in an email, according to charging documents, to an unnamed media strategist the same day the Philadelphia Inquirer published a story saying she abandoned a sting investigation.
Kane will be arraigned at a later date, said Ferman. She’s expected to turn herself in possibly Friday or Saturday.
Kane had “great animosity towards Frank Fina in particular,” former Kane aide Adrian King told county investigators. King said it was because she believed Fina was responsible for leaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer information that produced a March 2014 story that was critical of Kane for abandoning a legislative sting investigation against Philadelphia Democrats. County investigators “found no evidence that either Fina or [former OAG prosecutor Marc] Costanzo were the source of the leak” for the story.
But the story set Kane on the warpath to discredit Fina and other prosecutors of the past OAG, which was in Republican hands for decades, according to a 42-page document laying out Ferman’s reasons for charging Kane.
King told investigators Kane became “obsessed” with a 2009 investigation into the finances of former NAACP leader J. Whyatt Mondesire, who was never charged. The secret information about the Mondesire investigation was leaked to the Philadelphia Daily News in 2014, which appeared to have “a damaging effect – you know or somehow hurt the individuals that hadn’t pursued the case,” First Deputy Attorney General Bruce Beemer told investigators. The case was led by Fina and Costanzo.
The official oppression charges against Kane stem from both “professional and personal humiliation, ridicule, and loss” experienced by Mondesire after the secret information was leaked.
The alleged leaking of the confidential material in a “secretive manner” using political operative Josh Morrow, who managed Kane’s campaign, was described in charging documents as a “cloak and dagger technique” and “is evidence that she knew that what she was doing was not lawful.”
Kane also “intimidated employees with threats of termination if they did not follow her orders” to challenge the protective order in place during the grand jury investigation.
Kane stated to Beemer, “If I get taken out of here in handcuffs, what do you think my last act will be?” Beemer told investigators, according to charging documents.
Additionally, Kane’s driver and head of security, Patrick Reese, a close confidante, was charged by Ferman with violating a grand jury protective order by accessing an OAG email system seeking information about the investigating grand jury and those involved, including former Chief Justice Ron Castille, attorney Thomas Carluccio and Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter, the special prosecutor and grand jury supervising judge, respectively, other OAG aides and the names of two Philadelphia Inquirer reporters. CLICK HERE to read the criminal complaint filed against Reese. He faces a contempt hearing with Judge Carpenter.
The charging documents say Reese did not cooperate with county investigators. Another top aide, David Peifer, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Special Investigations, along with Reese, “both engaged in suspicious searches” of the email search system, “clandestine surveillance” that had intensified as the grand jury was wrapping up its investigation of Kane last fall.
Peifer and Reese are “two of her most trusted employees,” county investigators said. No charges have been filed against Peifer.
Kane is the second attorney general in 20 years to face criminal charges. In 1995, Ernie Preate Jr., a Republican, pleaded guilty to corruption charges and resigned.
Ferman said her investigation continues.
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Caught them with their porno on state time and now she gets this. Wow.