What a difference an election makes!
Republican candidate for Pennsylvania Attorney General David Freed for months has been nothing but complementary and supportive of Gov. Tom Corbett’s role in the long-running Jerry Sandusky case.
Ever since Freed was personally installed by Corbett as the GOP’s pick for AG, Freed has been effusive and full of praise for his political patron’s handling of the growing Sandusky scandal.
In a press release on June 22, Freed complemented former AG Corbett and his glacial non-handling of Sandusky’s case by saying:
“Today’s verdict represents why Pennsylvania must always have a criminal justice system that works, that is blind to special interests and must do the right thing for the right reasons, every time. I commend the numerous public servants of law enforcement and the Attorney General’s office….”
And, four days later, on June 26, the Harrisburg Patriot-News ran an article titled, “Pa. attorney general hopefuls say justice was served by Jerry Sandusky verdict.”
“‘I was pleased for the victims, pleased for the justice system,'” Freed, the Cumberland County district attorney, told a crowd gathered on Monday for the Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon at the Hilton Harrisburg. ‘I think everybody involved in the case deserves to be commended.’”
This of course includes Tom Corbett, to Freed’s way of thinking.
But lately Freed’s poll numbers have been down, at the same time there’s been growing public awareness that AG Corbett didn’t play straight with Sandusky and his many young victims.
So it comes as no surprise, two months after Freed’s glowing praise for Corbett at the Harrisburg Hilton — and two months out from a very high-stakes general election — that Freed has changed his tune, no less in the pages of the same Republican-leaning Patriot-News.
In an August 30 article titled, “State attorney general candidates want to review Sandusky case,” Freed now tells the Patriot’s editorial board something apparently was lacking in the AG’s office, and he now wants to “take a closer look” at the Sandusky case.
” ‘It wouldn’t be a thorough review if you didn’t talk to the people in the case,’ said Freed, the Cumberland County district attorney,” Freed told the Patriot’s editorial board.
One imagines how this “talk,” and the intensive questioning between AG Freed and Gov. Corbett, will go:
“You did a great and commendable job with Sandusky, didn’t you, Tom?”
“That’s right, I did.”
Case closed.
The Patriot, in its latest story, didn’t even bother to hold Freed to account for his contradictory previous statements, or try to reconcile them.
But at least, we’re led to believe, a chastened Freed now is thinking about “talking” to his embattled political patron, Tom Corbett, about why a well-connected serial pedophile wasn’t convicted for thirteen or fourteen years.
Freed’s opponent in the race, Lackawanna County prosecutor Kathleen Kane, has said all along she’d investigate the attorney general’s office handling of the Sandusky matter.
“In response to a question about whether she would try to use her office’s powers if Corbett didn’t cooperate, (Kane) said, ‘According to the rules of the grand jury and the law, it’s possible to compel testimony unless there’s a right against self-incrimination,’ ” the Patriot reported on August 30
So there you have it. Kane is, and has been since the primary, Tom Corbett’s worst nightmare.
Kane’s position, the potency of the Sandusky issue, and Freed’s closeness to Corbett are all obviously having an effect on what Freed now thinks he must say to win election.
Waiting for this break along with 315,000 PSU grads in Pennsylvania
Good piece, Bill. Keep up the great reporting and hold those who shirk their public office duties accountable!
Saying he will doesn’t mean he will; Corbett is proof of that.
It is as simple as this: PA DPW referred children to the Second Mile. Sandusky retired from PSU in ’98. Sandusky was enabled in his child abuse by Second Mile and PA DPW and yet, in Corbett’s political gains fantasy world, the entire focus of the scandal is what PSU did or didn’t do.
What did PA DPW, the Second Mile, Centre County DA, State AG, and Governor do?
Question is whether we’d want an attorney general who is accepting massive funds from the highly corrupt Chesapeake Energy representing our rights in court.
Furthermore, Freed’s previous willingness to praise law enforcement and the aAG’s office for clear failures dating to at least 1998 is reprehensible. The Second Mile coverup is poison, and the coverup continues. 100 percent of Sandusky’s came from the charity.
The failure of the AG’s office streches from Corbett to Mike Fisher to now Freed. This must end, these criminals who house OUR office must be purged, and be held responsible for their failure, cronyism, and ‘influence’ from donors.
This must end.
If Freed were serious about his claims to investiate HIS investigation in the Sandusky case, he would launch a legitimate case effort against the Second Mile, its board, as well as the board at Penn State.
This guy needs to go – as does Corbett.