16 Responses

1. AG Kane is worth re-electing if she keeps taking down dirty politicians, lawyers, and judges. Cynthia Baldwin should be indicted any day now. Just after Fina.

2. Not just “underqualified” Kraig. Kathy Martin (the new “Chief of Staff” and “general Counsel” at the DAs Office) has virtually no prosecutorial experience and zero general counsel experience.

   Is Williams really going to tell us that this new position he created just so happened to get filled by a person who is married to Fina’s lawyer? A person who stands to profit $$$-wise on her husband’s lawsuit against Kane?

   Williams got into bed with the wrong people. His career was going nicely. He was getting good Press. Now – he is hiding behind a “Chief of Staff” tied intimately to the racist women-hater he never should have hired in the first place.

   That racist woman-hater was just labeled UNETHICAL by this State’s Appellate Court. They said that his conduct was “highly improper.” He lied to a Judge.

   Is DA Williams going to try to tell us that happened while he was an AG and therefore irrelevant? Like he tried to tell us that Fina using his State computer to sent the following to his white male buddies was irrelevant:

   https://www.flickr.com/photos/zadock1/3580634808

3. Josh Shapiro is skilled at raising money proving he is a politician,not a prosecutor, and has no courtroom experience,civil or criminal, never practiced as a lawyer with real clients, has no criminal law experience of any kind,and has never managed a prosecutor’s office or any other office.

   Experience and qualifications may be a factor but who knows? Money can work its magic.

   The Republicans are simply pathetic.

4. Attorney General Kane has my vote. As I said many times, the Democrats tend to eat their own. You don’t see Republicans throwing their elected officials under the bus.

5. Here’s what makes me wonder: Fina’s plea deal with Ali.

   It was rushed through in the 11th hour (right before Kane was set to take office). Fina dropped all the criminal charges against Ali. Fina let Ali keep the $430K he stole from a charity (taxpayer money).

   Now we learn that Ali’s lawyer, Bob Levant (the one who negotiated that unjust pea deal) is also Frank Fina’s lawyer. Levant and Fina are suing PA for more taxpayer money.

   On top of that – Levant’s wife was just hired off the street by Seth Williams. High-paying job. Big title(s). But she us totally under-qualified.

   Doesn’t smell right.

6. kane’s hired some shills to go around locally but none of the folks i saw approached by her reps were willing to sign. kane recruited failed ann lazarus go-fer bonnie di carlo to circulate her petitions — one of di Carlo’s lucrative business is soliciting people to come to her expensive pay-for-food women’s political ‘breakfasts’ . leads me to wonder if di Carlo’s breakfast organization is a charitable corporation operating under Kane’s purview ???

7. Here’s the article about the “Playbook” being used by Frank Fina and his buddies:

   The cases of current Pennsylvania Attorney General (AG) Kathleen Kane and that of former Penn State University (PSU) officials (i.e., the PSU 3) are connected by a common thread.

   A group of the Commonwealth’s attorneys, judges, political operatives, and their media accomplices — hereafter referred to as the “network” — used trumped up charges, purposely misinterpreted laws, and oversold highly dubious evidence to convict these individuals in the court of public opinion.

   After examining the timelines and evidence of these cases, it appears that the network has a well defined playbook for taking out its targets and it works like this:

   1. Individuals within the network fear their own heinous acts may be exposed and publicly accuse their opponents of crimes as a means of deflecting attention away from themselves.

   2. The network next co-opts individuals close to the target(s) –insiders — to assist in setting up the target(s) to be charged with perjury and other crimes.

   3. After the insiders have sufficiently undermined the targets (using various means of deception), the network’s attorneys and/or judges leak damaging information about the targets to the media.

   4. The media arm of the network uses the information in an attempt to compromise the targets or to promote guilt by association in the press.

   5. At the conclusion of this “framing,” that was mislabeled as a criminal investigation, attorneys go public with charging documents that allege crimes based on misinterpretations of the laws and that are chocked full of questionable testimony from unreliable witnesses, completely illogical scenarios, and dubious evidence. Perjury charges are standard in order to publicly smear the defendants as being dishonest individuals while attempting to pump up the veracity of the Commonwealth’s lousy witnesses (who would be eviscerated at an actual trial).

   6. The media accomplices ignore the illegal application of relevant laws, that the charging documents are illogical, the lousy witnesses, and the highly questionable evidence in order to continue treating the allegations as facts and even go as far as to allege the target committed crimes for which he or she has not been charged.

   7. The public falls for the deception and believes the targets are guilty of everything and are corrupt individuals — whether they have been charged with a crime or not. Citizen activists, public officials, and other groups and individuals — who are beneficiaries of the corrupt network — jump on the media bandwagon to publicly condemn the targets.

   8. Witting and/or unwitting employers recommend the targets be relieved of their duties or actually do so through employment actions — before anything is proven and without conducting a legitimate legal review.

   9. When legal proceedings in the cases reveal the false and questionable testimony put forth in the charging documents and the dubious evidence used in the case, the network’s media arm ignores the information and continues to slant the reports so the public continues to assume the targets are guilty.

   10. The legal issues from the misapplications of the laws result in appeals to the network’s judges, who refused to rule on simple matters and keep the trials on permanent hold.

   The network’s playbook achieves the goal of protecting its corrupt dealings and/or heinous crimes by never legally proving, but publicly scapegoating the targets in a media firestorm that is high in supposition and light on facts.

   To wit: the grand jury and Montgomery County DA Risa Ferman did not find the evidence to charge AG Kane with directly leaking grand grand jury information in the Mondesire case, but you wouldn’t know that if you just read the news headlines.

   Instead, they charged her with perjury (part of the playbook), lesser crimes, and for orchestrating the leaks, the latter of which Ferman and others know can’t be proven.

   Then again, the network’s playbook doesn’t include actually prosecuting the case.

   In the following weeks, the dubious evidence used in Kane’s case will be exposed, as will the details showing how the network of attorney, judges, and media worked together in an attempt to prevent AG Kathleen Kane from breaking PA’s chain of corruption.

8. Kane: Nowhere to be found, because she’s a loser like HaHaHa/Pat Unger.

   Capitolwire: Minor petition snafu one of many problems for Kane campaign.

   By Kevin Zwick
   Staff Reporter
   Capitolwire

   HARRISBURG (Feb. 3) – Attorney General Kathleen Kane appears to be running for re-election, but not with the well-oiled campaign machine that propelled her in 2012 from obscurity to the post of top law enforcement official.

   For one, the Lackawanna County Federation of Democratic Women’s petition party last week would have been a good place to start collecting the 1,000 necessary signatures. But while two of Kane’s political opponents had petitions circulating at the event in her hometown of Scranton, none circulated for Kane.

   She also had zero campaign representatives there, according to a source who attended the function.

   To Kane’s credit, there was an effort to get a petition there. Sources said organizers were mistakenly sent a petition for Brian Nooney, a former aide to Jack Wagner, who is apparently mulling a run against incumbent Democrat Eugene DePasquale for auditor general. Top Kane aide Renee George Martin sent Nooney’s petition, the source said. The petition deadline is February 18. Efforts to reach Martin and Kane’s political consultant, Ken Smuckler, were unsuccessful.

   Kane has been circulating petitions elsewhere as she’s reportedly running for re-election. But the minor, and potentially embarrassing, snafu is another revealing crack in the foundation of an already-shaky campaign that’s reportedly woefully underfunded.

   When she entered the 2012 primary season, she had a $2 million campaign warchest.

   Instead of raising the money needed to mount a viable statewide campaign, Kane spent more than $300,000 on law firms and public relations agencies in 2015, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, as she continued to fight criminal charges while waging war against the “good ole’ boys.” She now awaits a potential removal vote in the Senate and is pushing for a reinstatement of her currently-suspended law license.

   Kane, who has only $246,000 on hand, according to the Trib, is behind compared to her potential primary opponents. One rival, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr., reported having about $502,000 cash on hand, more than half of which was transferred from a different campaign account. Zappala hails from a powerful political family and he’s the only western Pennsylvania candidate running in what’s likely to be one of the most contested races in April. Yet, Zappala hasn’t had to face an opponent in a primary or general election in 18 years, his campaign said.

   Zappala and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli – the Democrats’ candidate for AG in 2008 who was crushed by Tom Corbett, and lost prior runs in 2002 and 2004, but has $512,000 on hand – are losing the money race to Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro, who reported a $1.3 million war chest.

   Shapiro, who is close to Gov. Tom Wolf and state Democratic Party chairman Marcel Groen, and has former Gov. Ed Rendell’s endorsement, is a lawyer but has never been a prosecutor – a point likely to be emphasized by opponents from both parties. Republican Sen. John Rafferty and his potential GOP primary challenger, former Kane spokesman Joe Peters, both have experience in the OAG.

   With all that in mind, a late January survey shows Kane still commands a decent chunk of support in a four-person field (31 percent) among Democratic primary voters.

   The poll was conducted by GOP firm Harper Polling, and for disclosure the firm noted it conducts survey research for Rafferty. Given the current situation, he would probably love to run against Kane.

   If Kane were to not run, the Harper Polling survey says the race is wide open with 49 percent undecided.

   The primary is April 26.

   -30-

9. Obviously, Josh isn’t concerned with protecting the legal rights of Kathleen Kane (or getting to the bottom of the leaks against her). Nor has he expressed any interest in cleaning up the corruption and leaks driving the charges against Kane (that stemmed from Montco county DA and judges playing politics).

   He talks about bringing integrity to the office, which is what Kane did by exposing all these judges/prosecutors.

   What “mess” is he going to clean up? That’s a very vague statement without an example of a “mess” nor and example of a policy. Pretty much empty rhetoric and boilerplate.

   If claims he would run the office more efficiently or cost effectively, he should apply for chief of staff, budget director, or similar position.

   Does anyone think that ANY of the current candidates would have dared to expose the emails and inappropriate behavior and conflicts of interest?

   If you have a plumbing problem, you don’t hire an electrician.

10. Agree with Wait … what.

    The “porn-gate” scandal is as much the fault of Fina and Castille as it is AG Kane. Of course, the white male creeps behind the e-mails are the real problem. Fina, for instance, thinks it’s OK to use his State computers to send material suggesting that women in the work-force need to perform oral sex on their bosses in orter to advance their carriers. He thinks it’s OK to use his State computer to send racist images to his white male buddies.

    What’s good for the goose is good for the pervert racist creeps. They thought they could use the e-mails for their own purposes (to destroy Democrat McCaffery) and have us all ignore them when it comes to Fina, Eakin aand the other Corbett Pervs. Well – it’s not working

    In fact, Castille said that the porn-gate e-mails were CRIMINAL. I happen to agree with him and want to see Fina, Eakin, and the other Corbett Pervs prosecuted. Fina certainly prosecuted others for mis-using their State computers. Why should he get away with committing the same crimes that he prosecuted others for committing. Why should he get away with what Castille called CRIMINAL (when he was talking about McCaffery)?

11. I don’t know how well the other commentors know about Josh’s record but it speaks for itself. His commitment to the people of Montgomery County is unsurpassed by any MONTCO candidate in years. In my opinion, that dedication is first and foremost in my selection of any candidate. If they have the smarts and ability to learn, as we all know Josh does, he will be a successful candidate for any position. Thanks for your dedication!

12. Great post by another commenter on Morganelli article:

    Wait, what ? says:
    January 30, 2016 at 5:32 pm

    … Fina leaked info on he black caucus investigation and Kane retaliated by having King deliver docs to Brennan they morrow about Fina shutting down the [Mondesire] investigation (the theory being he did so to her a job with Seth Williams -a Mondesire crony). Fina than got his buddy, Castille, to authorize a grand jury to investigate Kane’s leak. While attempting to shut down the grand jury, Kane put out that she has come into possession of thousands of porn emails to and from Fina, who then sought and obtained a protective order preventing the release of his emails. In doing so, he obtained a copy of his emails with McCafferys emails attached. F ina then went back to Castile with the McCaffery connection and Castille demanded the release. Once Castille got his hands on McCaffery’s emails, he released them to the Press to force Mccaffery off the bench. The rest is history. This whole thing starts and ends with Fina and Castille. [Reporter] Brennan was doing his job. McCaffery got caught up in the Castille vendetta that now threatens Eakin and the other porn and racism recipients. Get your facts straight idiot.

13. Josh – what happened to Kane could happen to ANYONE (including you). Don’t be so quick to shove your fellow Democrat under the bus. We know you are running against her. But you expose your lack of legal experience when you imply that AG Kane has any choice but to fight Fina & The Corbett Pervs.

    The “distraction” you talk about is part of their “Playbook.” They illegally leak material to the Press to smear their enemies … worrying not about the law, constitutional rights, or what can actually be proven with real evidence.

    They – Fina & The Corbett Pervs- are a much bigger danger to PA than most of the people you will prosecute if you become AG.

14. ” He’s been all over ” ?? Yeah he’s been all over the state using government resources and phoney crime commission appointments but has the balls to talk about restoring integrity. Does anyone know if Gov Wolf is buying this snake oil salesman Schpeel? KANE IS INNOCENT until proven guilty! I mean did he really just insinuate that she shouldn’t be worried about her civil rights? Josh stick to shaking down the row offices in Montco.

15. Josh said he hasn’t seen zappala anywhere in pa and zappala is still ahead of him in the polls experience does matter.

16. Well that sure sounded like someone running for Governor to me.

    KDKA: “Hey, Josh, you’ve never been in a courtroom, how could you possibly run an office of trial lawyers?”

    JOSH: “Clean air, good things for everybody, miniature American flags!”