Kathleen Kane has been charged with five criminal counts.
The Attorney General was charged with obstructing administration of law or other government function, official oppression, criminal conspiracy, perjury and false swearing.
Montgomery County DA Risa Vetri Ferman handled this case and conducted the press conference this morning.
Arrangement will take place in the next two days.
The Attorney General leaked classified grand jury information to a political operative who would then leak it to the press. According to Ferman, she did this “in hopes of embarrassing and harming former state prosecutors she believed, without evidence, made her look bad.”
Ferman also revealed that a criminal contempt charge was filed against Patrick Reese, the Attorney General’s driver. She stated that Reese repeatedly snuck into the grand jury files despite orders that they be sealed.
“No one is above the law, not even the highest law enforcement official of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Ferman concluded. “This is a sad day for the citizens of Pennsylvania and for all of us in law enforcement.”
Ferman passed on the question of whether Kane should resign, although the AG has said in the past that she will not resign if charged.
Last year, a grand jury recommended charges of perjury, criminal contempt, obstruction of justice and official oppression be issued against the Attorney General.
This case stems from a June Daily News article that suggested Frank Fina fumbled a case involving a Philly civil rights leader.
A full timeline of Kane’s case is can be accessed here.
UPDATE: The Attorney General released the following statement in response:
“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.”
UPDATE 2: You can read the full criminal complaint here.
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127 Responses
perhaps before david d graduates from college he can study the prosecutorial functions of the American legal system, and understand more about how grand juries operate. anyone who has followed this story from the beginning understands the critical importance of grand jury secrecy and one’s obligation as a witness to tell ‘the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’ when the chief law enforcement officer of PA does none of these things, it is grounds for criminal indictment. as a former prosecutor who has done investigating grand jury work, i can tell you that the judicial system could not function if witnesses behaved like Kane and her driver. Furthermore, the Pa Supreme Court has grounds to suspend her law license forthwith, at which point Kane can no longer serve as attorney general. that will break no one’s heart.
Couples retreat to Haiti — or was it the Dominican Republic? How romantic. Wonder how Block and Peifer’s respective spouses like this one?
David Diano, I admire your standing up for Kane. Nothing but love for ya man. You’re arranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Even if Kane is found not guilty, she’s radioactive.
Jessica,
Has Reese been suspended? Or is he another in a long line of privileged Kane and JD acolytes who have a different set of rules? Maybe the Under Armour girl can be the driver.
I’m a little bit surprised her friends Bill and Hillary didn’t advise her to keep a server with her deputies’ emails in her basement. ‘Cause this shit never would have happened.
I think I found PA INDY’s new pet project: http://twitter.com/draftkane
Don’t talk in all caps bungy. We’re used to skipping over those because they belong to PAINDY1…who has been eerily absent.
LOUIE LOUIE LOUIE
DAVE, THIS IS NOTHING NEW ABOUT THE DRIVER. I TOLD EVERYONE MONTHS AGO TO PAY ATTENTION TO HER DRIVER’S. ALL CONNECTED TO LOUIE.
She can beat this. You go girl!
LOL!
Dude look. She didn’t know what was in the envelope. Do you have a video of her stuffing it and signing across the seal?
How about her claim – try no to laugh, Diano – that “nobody ever told” her Mondesire had been part of a grand jury investigation? Pretty hard to square with, oh, I don’t know…
1) The testimony of numerous senior staffs member that Mondesire’s being a subject of the 2009 grand jury investigation was explicitly discussed during the initial meeting called by Kane;
and
2) The e-mail correspondence between Kane and her First Assistant in which he “pointedly advised” Kane as to exactly why disclosure of documents developed during the Mondesire investigation was legally impermissible.
Now that Patrick “Rocco” Reese (WTF was that?!?) is suspended and no longer driver, who will Louie D put in his place????
Hey Jessica,
I believe that DP flipped but will still be charged at a later date. Hence his mysterious 5 day vacation. Remember once he’s charged he gets suspended. If they delay filing charges he can continue to work and get paid.
David unmasks the secret crossexamination strategy. Sounds like a winner.
Reasonable Rep-
That is some weak tea. It’s covered under: “I did not recall having seen it before”.
My dad often can’t recall TV shows he saw the day before.
Duke, holy cow, I hope you’re joking. I had a case with Bill Vinsko. Really nice guy, but dumber than a box of rocks. And very politically ambitious.
MontoCo PA Dem:
Under oath, Kane expressly denied any knowledge of the 2009 memo that detailed the grand jury investigation of Mondesire. Upon being shown the memo, if you can believe it, she specifically testified that it was the first time she had ever seen the memo.
And yet, many MONTHS earlier, Kane called a meeting among her senior staff to discuss the Mondesire matter. Multiple attendees – her hand-picked senior staff, no less – testified under oath that the 2009 memo was physically presented to Kane and directly discussed at length.
And stop crying about circumstantial evidence. How’s this for some DIRECT evidence – after the article was published, at Kane’s request, an OAG employee emailed her a copy of the 2009 memo…the same memo she testified to have “never seen before.”
An awful Attorney General, to be sure. But even worse of a liar.
Rumor has it that Wolf’s choice is down to NEPA Super Lawyer Bill Vinsko or NEPA’s super ADA Jarrett Ferrentino. The bar is so low, either could jump right over it.
BUSTA BUSTA BUSTA
WHERE ARE YOU?
It’s now been two days and we haven’t heard from you.
I want to share this popcorn with you!
Hey Kane’s Driver — think DP flipped hence no charge?
Montco PA Dem: I’m not surprised to hear you try to defend the indefensible, but when they got Morrow to testify that Kane called him about Mondesire materials, they closed the loop and locked in down. That was the only missing piece. Now, they have (1) lawyers in the OAG telling Kane the Mondesire documents are confidential, (2) Kane having a conversation with her driver/lover/co-defendant in which she takes his approval over Adrian King’s furious disapproval of releasing the Mondesire materials, (3) Kane calling Morrow and telling him to expect something from Adrian King, and (4) King delivering a sealed envelope with Mondesire materials that Morrow leaked to the press on Kane’s behalf. Then Kane lied about each of these facts to a grand jury.
Case closed. She’s dead in the water.
Read the full 42 (not 40) page presentation. It is circumstantial BS on top of more circumstantial BS. And I’m convinced that Ferman knows it, too – but felt pressured to bring the case. She also knows it will be well past Election Day now before it comes to trial, and by that time she hopes to be happily redecorating her new judge’s chambers. If this goes to the jury, they’re likely to find the prosecutors guilty.
Caisel –
Not removed from Montco, all I ever hear is that Montco DA is a political hack.
Reasonable Rep-
Let’s see how this all holds up under cross-examination by Kane’s attorneys.
Watching, and eating popcorn. And waiting for the porn emails that we all know were commonplace in the Corbett reign to be released. PA’s corrupt rightwing legislators will suddenly stop complaining about Hillary’s email habits, you betcha.
Well removed from MontCo, I heard DA has run a non-political office and number 1 Assistant is a D. If true, such data would seem to go a long way to rebutting knee-jerk accusations Kane is victim of political attack.
Stop being a moron, Diano.
You can’t fabricate a story under oath and then later rationalize it as a “statement of innocence” that shouldn’t be used against you. We have this little constitutional right against self-incrimination for these situations. You can’t just lie.
This isn’t “she said, he said.” It’s “she said, everyone besides her driver said.” Kane’s preformance before the grand jury was embarrassing. She couldn’t even keep her own story straight. In a word, she lied. Over and over. And it’s probable beyond a reasonable doubt.
The irony here is, even if the leak itself is found not to be criminal (don’t kid yourself, it was), Kane is STILL on the hook for lying about the facts.
Denny-
The stuff about the driver is new revelation, as none of the previous leaks about this case indicated that the files came from other than official sources. It sounds like a plot from a movie where the driver is former retired spy living undercover.
But, as to your other point, the hypocrisy of the prosecution and the clear political one-sided nature of this (and turning a blind eye to their own leaks) calls into question the integrity of the process. So, if a judge tried to convict you of speeding, but gets his own tickets fixed, then you shouldn’t get convicted by that judge.
Another wrong does not cancel out the previous wrong. Politically motivated or not, the criminal charges reflect a vindictive and petty attorney general whose crony driver stole sealed information. That is criminal, not civil or political.If she had simply leaked documents legally in her possession, I might buy “everybody does it.” But “everybody” speeds, too. Some of us get caught, and have to pay the piper, regardless whether others get away or not. By the way, is this the same driver who caused that predawn crash of Kane’s car when nobody knows why she would be in that car in that neighborhood at that hour?
It’s a conspiracy, man. Kane doesn’t intimidate (or fire or demote) witnesses at all.
Kane Apologist-
It’s been obvious from day 1 that the republican prosecutor and judge were engaged in politics not justice (and they certainly didn’t give a crap that their grand jury leaked the most selectively cherry picked info to damage their target, Kane).
andddddddddddd now its the court’s fault
rsklaroff
I specifically think that the leak was not criminal, so the grand jury and everything derived from it is invalid. (Similar to fruit from the poisoned tree.)
The entire proceeding was an abuse of judicial and prosecutorial discretion, and combined with the excessive leaks, should have resulted in criminal charges against the judge and prosecutor, not Kane.
It is they who have engaged in obstruction, oppression and a criminal conspiracy. This is all to distort the courts to overturn an election.
The perjury and false swearing charges are he-said-she-said, and based on uncross-examined testimony. It’s bogus to accuse someone, then declare their statements of innocence to be perjury. To call it perjury assumes a conclusion about the facts that haven’t be determined.
The court deserves contempt for this entire case.
Here’s how Obama deals with porn workers: http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/31/congressman-epa-sexual-predator-fed-a-steady-diet-of-interns/
And David, I have as much evidence that the new leakers have been gone after with more vigor as you have evidence of your accusation that they’ve been gone after with less. Absence of evidence is not evidence unless you’re a Democrat investigating IRS targeting, in which case everyone losing their emails is proof there’s really nothing to see.
Now we’ll see if Ferman actually has a case, and we’ll see the facts publicly as opposed to via cherry picked leaks of secret grand jury testimony. I don’t have a dog in this fight-but I am happy that Ferman has decided to stop being lazy. Let’s move this along people!
I’ve said for many months…I hope this goes to verdict.
@ DD:
If you wish to adhere with your defense of AG-Kane on this website, your [already damaged] reputation will remain problematic if you cannot refute each of the specific charges in the criminal indictment [without attempting to deflect attention].
{Note that your initial response, predictably, failed to comply with the “specificity” criterion for, again, you engage in misdirection.}
rsklaroff
1) I don’t consider the leak of materials to reveal the behavior of the prosecutors to be the slightest bit criminal or protected by secrecy rules.
2) There should be sunshine laws showing how the prosecutors behave, especially when the process has been so corrupt for years.
3) She should be given a medal for exposing Fina as well as his porn pals.
4) The release of the name of the person of interest that Fina failed to pursue strikes me as an accidental failure to redact and the penalty should be a fine.
5) Unless Ferman and her GOP cohorts go after the leakers of Kane’s case with the same (or greater vigor) then it’s clear they support the practice of leaks and they have no moral authority to go after Kane, while covering for their own political allies. If there is selective prosecution then the case against should be dropped for the political witch hunt it has been.
bobguzzardi, you aren’t know for sarcasm. Rightly or wrongly, you don’t do it well.
Who called a 40-page single-spaced presentment last night?
Me! Me! Me!
THE AG IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW. SO SAD !!!
What else but a Republican witch hunt can explain another Democrat being indicted, and likely convicted, for political corruption?
David: What do Al Lord, Rob McCord, Michael Fleck and Risa Ferman have in common? Ahhh…NOW you’re getting it.
@ DD:
If you wish to adhere with your defense of AG-Kane on this website, your [already damaged] reputation will remain problematic if you cannot refute each of the specific charges in the criminal indictment [without attempting to deflect attention].
I was aware of the refiling, but I suspect he will wish to update it accordingly…and to proceed with holding hearings promptly.
1) Those former prosecutors should be harmed and embarrassed
2) The grand jury secrecy rules aren’t there to protect bad prosecutors
3) When is Ferman going after all the people that leaked details of Kane’s case with the clear intent of “embarrassing and harming” Kane?
4) Since when is Ferman part of “law enforcement” instead of “political enforcement” and who believes that she and any of her Republican cohorts are “sad”?
Sklaroff, Metcalfe re-filed the impeachment petition a couple weeks ago.
The Deed has been Done:
http://abc27.com/2015/08/06/da-investigating-ag-kane-calls-news-conference/
The Data are Damning.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150807_Montco_DA_expected_to_charge_Kathleen_Kane_this_morning.html
“Paging David Diano…Paging David Diano….”
Metcalf will, assuredly, weigh-in shortly; impeachment appears justified…and plans to achieve conviction [post-“trial” in the Senate] would continue to keep this issue in the media.
I guess that ham sandwich just got a little meatier.