Personal and political rivalries are often the topic of gossip behind the scenes but they rarely leak into the news, until now.
A new report from the Philadelphia Inquirer reveals that the depth of the feud between Attorney General Kathleen Kane and Prosecutor Frank Fina.
Among the revelations is that fact that Fina was among those who sent and received pornographic emails while serving in the Attorney General’s office.
Perhaps more amazing, however, is that a few months ago Fina obtained a ruling from a Montgomery County judge that prohibited Kane from releasing this information.
According to Craig McCoy and Angela Couloumbis, the whole saga began during the 2012 campaign when Kane criticized how then-Attorney General Tom Corbett and Fina handled the Jerry Sandusky investigation.
The rivalry escalated when it was reported that Kane had shut down an investigation Fina had conducted of Philadelphia legislators.
Now, the Inquirer believes the Attorney General is going after Fina and his allies because these emails indicate a lack of professionalism on their part.
“She [Kane] wanted to expose what she believed was an entrenched misogynistic culture in the Attorney General’s Office when Fina was a ranking prosecutor and before she took charge, people close to her say,” McCoy and Couloumbis write.
It’s unclear where this conflict will lead or what will happen now that all this information is out in the open. Suffice to say, though, make sure to stay tuned.
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31 Responses
The people of the great state of PA have spoken loud and clear. They elected Kane to go after the people that stole hundreds of millions from poor Penn State students in a phony made for TV narrative. Wolf defeated Tom Corbett in a historic election where published estimates have shown that close to 500,000 republican voters crossed the aisle and voted for the democratic candidate. It is not a surprise to me that the Inquirer is attacking Kane every day. In WW2 the bombers caught lots of flack cause the ground troops knew what was coming….I cant wait until Kane drops the bomb on the very corrupt officials who think its ok to steal from poor college kids trying to get a toe hold on life.
Kathleen Kane is a modern day hero her quote in todays paper is “I am fighting for an end to abuse of the criminal justice system” “if this can be done to me as Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer of the fifth largest state in the country. I am sickened to think what can and may be done to regular, good people” You go girl, you rid Harrisburg of corruption and while your at it I would like to know what happened to Lewis Katz, his name is on the Law buildings at PSU. He stated when he purchased the Inquirer that he was going to light a light and expose the corruption. Unfortunately his plane crashed 4 days after declaring he was going to expose the corruption. The people have spoken and the people WIL be heard regardless of how hard the Philly Inquirer campaigns against the recently elected AG
The late great Paul Tsongas had a campaign piece that stated on the cover, ” Straight Talk vs. Say Anything”. There is one hell of a lot of “say anything” against AG K. Kane. She was right about not spending tax payers money defending the ban on gay marriage and I.C. also saved the same money in a half assed way. Time will tell what else she will be right about. It will be a hard kick-to-the-ass of her detractors.
Davey, I’m not just claiming. I know. I’m gonna let the press have this one.
#UPMCrecycles
Bungy- If you are claiming there is a ghost employee, then name the employee. Corbett’s claiming he’s got no work records for his ghost employee Tomalis.
What Montco PA Dem says!
I hope and pray what you say is right.
Davey, you got the ghost part right. I’ll give you the second part of the clue. employee.
Larry-
The problem with Fina’s “experience” it that it’s the bad kind. I don’t think his vast experience sending and receiving porn is really going to be an asset here.
It’s fun to watch Repubs trying to stay afloat as they brace for the Wolf Wave. Nov. 5th’s headlines will be about PA bucking the national trend and Dems picking up state House and Senate seats in the wake of Wolf’s overwhelming win. Nobody will be thinking about Kane when they vote next month.
Kane has a small fraction of the experience as a lawyer that Fina has, so I see him winning this war.
Right, it was a racist sting…Left of the Philly Inquirer is not a respectable place. Take the blinders off. Epic nosedive.
Mike-
Kane seems to be more of a wrecking ball than a train wreck.
Bungy- Casper’s the friendly ghost, and the only ones afraid of him were generally the bad people. I don’t recall Casper losing in any of his cartoons.
Unsanctioned R-
Fina ran a bad sting operation. That’s what “poisoned” the case. But, Seth Williams decided to grandstand and claim the case was still a slam dunk when he demanded it (along with enough rope to hang himself and Fina). So, if (when) Seth blows the case, he should not try to blame Kane, since he took it with full fore-knowledge of Kane’s public reasons for dropping the case.
Kane poisoned the well on the Philly bribery cases.
I could see Noonan suing her for the overzealous smear.
And these leaks are coming home to roost.
Epic nosedive.
Davey,I’ll give you a clue. think casper. She’s finished.
Poor Observer. Sad that your girl Kane is a trainwreck? And FYI, the objectiveness of an AG, someone whose biggest policy decision is to indict or not to indict, is far more important than that of a political office holder who is expected to have political policy decisions.
Now we know why Frank Fina failed to get the Snyder County DA appointment.
The AG’s Turnpike Pay to Play case seems to be tanking and the Spanier-Curley-Schultz cover-up case seems to be on a very slow track.
The pornomails are an entertaining distraction from
what appear to be the AG’s failures and even incompetence. The media coverage of the pornomails has overwhelmed coverage of substantive cases involving government corruption and covering up for child rapist.
What David D said.
Bungy- Don’t you think that Fina was involved with porn emails and that revelation is going to damage his career? Do you think he’ll actually prevail in the racial tinged sting investigation?
Kane holds no cards. Indictments are coming.
“Why does Fina still have a job with the Philly DA?”
Because he’s managed (so far) to keep his porn emails from being released. Also, the DA Williams seems more interested in Fina’s ability to attack Kane, to lay a path for Williams to run against her for A.G. in 2016.
But, now, Williams has hitched his star to an anchor:
“Numerous people with knowledge of their quarrel – including sources close to both – have said Fina participated in the exchange of X-rated e-mails.”
The problem here is that Fina “appears to be” a piece of crap who engaged in inappropriate behavior, and used the courts to get a gag order on his involvement. He seems to have taken Kane’s dismissal of his poorly run (and apparently racially targeted) investigation and tried to turn it into a political matter to mask his own incompetence. The more layers of the onion that get peeled, the worst it comes out for Fina.
How many months has it been since Kane turned over the “slam-dunk” sting investigation to Williams and Fina? What have they done with it, if it was such a solid case as they’ve claimed?
This all smells like Fina keeps trying to cover up his problems and Kane is holding the cards.
Kane might still get in some trouble over leaked information from her office, but they are going to have to prove that she ordered the leak, rather than she had “insufficient protocols in place” (which is the usual way these things go).
Bombshell is coming. Pay close attention to jeff C. from my fox philly. kane has big problems.
Hey, Mikey! Last I looked, the AG is an ELECTED office. Do you understand what that means?? Your stupid statement is exactly the same thing as saying the Governor should be apolitical. Last I looked, your crony One-Term Tommie was as right-wing radical political as they come, despite his belated race to the middle. Hey, that House Speaker – why isn’t HE apolitical? Get your whining out of here.
What Montco PA Dem says!
Kathleen Kane is fearless. All Pennsylvanians should be thankful for her refusal to back down to these creeps. Why does Fina still have a job with the Philly DA?
I wonder if Ron Castille could lift that order?
She needs to resign sooner rather than later. I sure hope the Democratic Party isn’t dumb enough to renominate this train reck.
The only slime I see is this political hack of an Attorney General running roughshod over what should be an apolitical office. Between her and Holder the Democratic party has pushed back the public’s trust in government judicial departments to the dark ages. You took a bribe Philly legislator? No big deal we’ll call it racism. You threatened people outside of a polling place Black Panthers? It’s okay, we’ll drop the case. Mumia?? Oh, he’s just misunderstood…
We need to see this order and figure out the supposed basis for it. AND it needs to be lifted so this slime Fina can be exposed.
These people are just bad people.
Notice how Frank got a protective order for himself, but left all his friends and allies to hang out to dry? What a guy.