It’s been a tough year for Attorney General Kathleen Kane, but this latest news may be the most damaging yet.
According to Craig McCoy and Angela Couloumbis of the Inquirer, the documents and testimony Attorney General Kane relied on to abandon a sting operation didn’t exist.
Back in March, the Inquirer broke a story about Kane shutting down an operation that sought to target corrupt State Representatives in Philadelphia. In defense, the Attorney General asserted that the case was “poorly conceived, badly managed and tainted by racism.”
To back up these claims, Kane cited notes from an interview one of her agents, Kevin Wevodau, conducted with Claude Thomas, the agent in charge of the investigation. She also stated that an affidavit emerged from this meeting backing up the claims of racial bias.
The only problem? The notes and the affidavit do not exist.
Prosecutors from Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams’ office (who charged two State Reps. involved in the case last week), told the Inquirer that the only evidence for Kane’s account is a memo from Wevodau.
The memo was written four days after Kane cited the notes and the affidavit in an April press conference. Wevodau’s memo came fifteen months after his interview with Thomas.
As for Thomas, who jumped from Kane’s office to Williams’ staff last year, he rejects the Attorney General’s claims.
“I never uttered those words or anything near those words. That is a complete lie,” Thomas told the Inquirer. “For the entire investigation, race never came up whatsoever.”
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65 Responses
Note the lede from the Keystone Report:
“AG KANE’S STAR MAY BE FADING FOR DEMS”
triblive.com/politics/politicalheadlines/7431806-74/kane-attorney-democrats#axzz3MydtaXf7
“Blunt statements by Philadelphia’s most powerful Democrat may signal trouble for Kathleen Kane, even as other Democrats publicly are noncommittal about their support for the embattled attorney general, political analysts say.”
@ DD:
AGAIN, as usual, you attempt to “change the subject”; in this case, you not only have [generically] reinforced prior documentation of your lack of credibility, but you also have [specifically] failed to rebut conclusions regarding AG-Kane’s loss of credibility.
You Dems are “two peas in a pod.”
The people in this case with no credibility are Williams, Fina and Ali.
@ DD:
As usual, you attempt to “change the subject”; in this case, you not only have [generically] reinforced prior documentation of your lack of credibility, but you also have [specifically] failed to rebut conclusions regarding AG-Kane’s loss of credibility.
You Dems are “two peas in a pod.”
Guzzardi was as viable as a snowball in Miami during Spring Break.
@ Larry:
Guzzardi was a viable candidate, both noting what prompted the PA-Supremes to overturn Commonwealth Court [no “damages” because the desired info had been supplied via the Dept. of State to the Ethics Commission] and the outcome [Corbett was smashed, against the national pro-GOP tide].
He had positions, an organization, and fervor.
LOL
the logical gymnastics of moola elroy and DD: http://giphy.com/gifs/fail-gymnastics-injury-StaDy5XWBsWaY
@ Big Moola:
You join DD and elroy in scrupulously avoiding the need to address the “tale of the tapes”; you also evade confronting the retroactive memo.
Perhaps trying to conjure a rationalization for non-denied info such as this would disabuse you of the compulsion to play the “racism” card, particularly after the “social and political networking” claim appears to be reasonable.
I don’t know the players – nor whether heinous motives can be ascribed thereto – but it seems AG-Kane has been confabulating.
It’s funny that all this talk of Kane’s demise is taking place on POLITICS PA ! Political Demise !
Today’s entertainment is based on Kane’s claim that the case against the “Philadelphia Five” was week and appeared it could look race bias. Last I checked Philadelphia County had 24 House Seats in Harrisburg Pa. Of the 24 Representatives 12 are African American. To target Five Philadelphia Politicians all whom are African American is roughly 21% of the Delegation. However,when you target 5 of the 12 African American members this is 42%. Targeting 42% could appear bias when you don’t target any of the remaining 12 or 50% of the(non African American)Delegation.
As for a case being weak last I checked charging someone and actually convicting them are two different actions. Plea bargaining to a point of little to no penalty to someone is often times an easier way out for them than the cost and expense of defending themselves against a seemly endless wallet of tax dollars afforded the Elected Prosecutor. This is the point of which Prosecutors must use their discretion on behalf of those footing the bill. The Taxpayers.
Seems to me that in 2012 when Kathleen Kane was elected Attorney General of Pennsylvania it was to serve the Taxpayer / Voters of Pennsylvania’s best interest. If i recall one of the reasons I voted for her was that she stated that she was ” A Prosecutor not a Politician ” ! I didn’t only expect her to Arrest Criminals and Prosecute them, I also expected her to be an advocate for Taxpayer dollars while doing so. It appears to me that Williams, Fina and Thomas have political motives against Kane, otherwise, why didn’t Fina and Thomas prosecute the case when they both worked in the Attorney General’s Office rather than letting the case sit dormant ? It appears Williams is searching for his next Political move as so many of his Philadelphia Politician predecessors have.
@ Bungy:
“Elroy Hirsch[Brett] and the people who created Casablanca, are bitter criminals that were put in prison by Fina.”
Care to elaborate?
Just so everybody knows, Elroy Hirsch[Brett] and the people who created Casablanca, are bitter criminals that were put in prison by Fina.
Advice: when you start to argue “two wrongs make a right,” just stop.
Annnnnnnd now he’s cited a blog.
I have to admit it is fun watching you guys absolutely bury yourselves.
Please read CasablancaPA.
http://casablancapa.blogspot.com/
Isaac, you’re indicting the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, which means you may need a compass.
elroy, she was setup? LOLOLOL. Why not just blame it on god for her foot shaped mouth?
Bobguzzardi, as one who is never a viable Republican candidate for any office, you should be assumed to be an expert in who is not a viable candidate. But, first, Rafferty is widely expected to declare his candidacy for Supreme Court, and, second, Kane’s biggest opposition will come in the Democratic primary.
Once again, Republicans screw things up and leave Democrats holding the bag and then blame them for the entire problem – it’s awfully convenient. Could Kane and her office have handled this better? It seems entirely possible. Did she originate this poor excuse for an investigation and bungle it the whole way? No. It’s time for the knee-jerk anti-Kane partisans in this thread to take their Ginko and find a calendar.
The good news for AG Kane is that the Republicans do not have a viable challenger. I expect that Sen. John Rafferty will declare his candidacy; Kathleen Kane will appear very good in comparison. The Republicans cannot seem to resist nominating incompetent hacks.
@ DD & elroy:
Can you discount the claim that Ali followed established social and political paths?
@ elroy:
Does any of your allegations undermine the cold fact that the reps. accepted (but didn’t report) the $?
@DD:
When your boss writes a new memo…
does he/she backdate it?
I am no particular fan of Fina.
That said, Kane went through 4 campaign managers. That’s like divorces: 1 or 2 are understandable. 4 says, something is wrong with you.
Under Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett:
Frank Fina directed the following actions in the case of the Philly Five.
1. Charged Ali with stealing $430,000 from the state.
2. Charged Ali with several hundred criminal counts.
3. Planned a sting operation in Harrisburg using Ali. Later dropped the initiative.
4. Failed to supervise Ali; no legal accountability of electronic surveillance procedure, poor or no accounting for state money Ali was entrusted with, Ali gave money to a female bartender.
5. Failed to indict the Philly Five while working for OAG.
6. Allowed the case to go cold during the election campaign of 2012.
7. Dropped hundreds of criminal charges against Ali prior to Kathleen Kane’s Inauguration.
8. Reported that ALi was not required to appear as a witness in the case following his dismissal of criminal charges.
9. Fina helped Corbett indict people in the Legislative Branch, sending some to jail and costing many their state pensions.
10. Reportedly involved in the pornographic email scandal in the Office of the Attorney General.
11. Failed to alert Corbett of the email problem in OAG
12. Failed to alert Linda Kelly, Acting AG, of the email problem in OAG.
Under Democrat DA Seth Williams:
Fina blamed Kathleen Kane for failing to prosecute the case as listed above.
1. DA’s Office claimed Ali stole less than $100,000.
2. Claimed the flawed electronic surveillance procedure would be acceptable in court.
3. Ignored the issue of cash accountability of state funds.
4. Failed in three of the five targets to obtain jail time or loss of a state pension directly related to the sting operation.
5. Moved rapidly to indict three of the Philly Five. This could have been accomplished while Fina was in the Office of the Attorney General.
6. Fina’s Sting has not been tested in court.
It appears that Kane was setup and the media is selling newspapers.
Elroy, the legal opinion that matter the most is that Fina saved this case. Thank you Mr. Fina . If not for you kane would have gotten away with ignoring and hiding the obvious crimes of Her Democrat pals.
You’re right elroy, I for one am sick and tired of the far-rightwingyness of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The attacks on Attorney General Kathleen Kane sound more and more like a Republican version of the character assassination of Sarah Palin. Would the columnists please report the complete involvement of Frank Fina in this case? Also, a legal review of this case would be informative to the public. The political opinions have certainly been heard.
Well there you have it in his own words. Dave works at the Attorney General’s office.
Tell me, when your boss goes in for a performance review, does she bring her attorney?
Maybe her dog ate the evidence.
Hey Doc, pay no attention to Davey. Davey is an Israel hating, Muslim terrorist loving, race baiting worm.
Where I work, my boss comes up with all sorts of ideas at meetings for how to change the business and computer software. He writes all sorts of memos, and refers to stuff he claims he said/wrote months or years ago.
Sometimes it was a MS Word document (that we can find on his computer or server) and sometimes it was scribbled on a blank sheet of paper or the back of another memo.
When we can’t find it, he writes a new memo, reiterating what he wants (or wanted) to the best of his recollection.
Were there hand-written notes that never got transcribed and filed? If it’s anything like the place I work, it’s more the rule than the exception.
So, whether or not someone made a new copy of a memo they lost isn’t really important.
What is important is how these legislators were targeted. It’s hardly random, and this guy, Ali, got away with over $100,000 in fraud to be part of the sting.
The number $400,000 has been tossed around a lot, and $100,000 now claimed as a correction by Williams. But, even if that is a new revelation, it means that Fina thought he was letting Ali get away with $400,000 in fraud at the time.
Maybe Fina should have spend less time looking at porn on his computer and more time adding up the numbers.
So now that we have covered corruption, we can move on and include forgery to the list of things that are OK if you are Kathleen Kane #dianologic
“If, if, if…”
http://tinyurl.com/bnrj544
[me pointing to the scoreboard]
@ DD:
Your lame attempts to defend AG-Kane should be ignored, recalling the documentation of your lack of credibility, compiled following a series of e-mail exchanges [extending over multiple sites] that led painstakingly to establishing the following:
“You have advocated the overthrow of the Israeli government throughout Israel’s entire lifetime … explaining why you have endorsed the behavior of Hamas [which the USA has designated as a terrorist organization] that is, itself, promoting policies that are consonant with those of the Islamic State.”
politicspa.com/kathleen-kane-tells-cnn-pornographic-emails-included-pictures-of-children/61928/comment-page-2/#comment-925106
Unsanctioned R-
If it gets to actual court and jury, I’m sure the racial targeting will be part of the defense.
They dropped the bribery charge against Tynes and just got her to plead to “conflict of interest” with no jail time (since they said the jail time would be concurrent with unrelated two-year sentence). This plea deal was an even better deal than going to trial and being acquitted because the net result was the same, but without the expense of a trial.
I wonder if the next “conviction” is going to be a plea to “jaywalking” while crossing the street to meet Ali?
That would be par for the course for this case.
It sounds to you, David? Get your ears checked. The subject of the imaginary memo said the fabricated cover couldn’t be further from the truth.
And, if it was “clearly racial” as you and the AG agree, why didn’t the targets use such a clear defense? Is it because the AG’s words (ironically) are not worth diddly-squat?
Well, it sounds to me like there was a memo or conversation or statement that never got filed/recorded as a basis for Kane’s original statement. Then, after the statement, they couldn’t find the original memo, and just made a new record.
But, the targeting was clearly racial. There are 202 state reps. What are the odds of looking for corruption and “randomly” picking a half-dozen black Dems?
From the transcript highlights I’ve seen, the dialog of Ali stating “this is not a quid pro quo” and the rep agreeing, really undermines the entire case.
One of the “gifts” is Ali paying the fee for a Michael Jackson impersonator as the entertainment at a rep’s birthday party.
This is some pretty weak tea.
One-Sided!? There are not 2 interpretations of the facts here. What’s wrong with you Democrats?
It is so very obvious that the Inquirer is on a scalp-hunt with this story. Think they’d be so one-sided if Kane was male and from SE PA? No, me neither.
Observer-
“he hasn’t had a good BM in days”. LOL.
“METCALFE TO INTRODUCE RESOLUTION TO IMPEACH AG KANE”
repmetcalfe.com/NewsItem.aspx?NewsID=22198
I alluded to this possibility on the prior Politics-PA page.
FF is a True American Hero.
Observer, Kane got caught AGAIN making stuff up. How many times does she have to do this before you stop defending her?
Sour grapes, Observer? She’s a LIAR. And she can’t stop cutting herself.
Please excuse wingnut Sklaroff – he hasn’t had a good BM in days, and it is clouding his thinking even more than usual.
And please obsevre that all this garbage is coming from McCoy and Coulombis, whose sole source of information is the infamous Frank fina. Yet, even though they know he is at the very center of the porn email scandal – the VERY center – M&C have not written a word about that. And they have yet to quote him even though he is their “inside” snitch. They’ll never get their hoped-for Pulitzer exactly because their single, well-known source doesn’t have the balls to go on the record.
Come out, come out, Freaky Frankie! Stop hiding behind a pair of unethical reporters! “Prosecutors from Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams’ office”? Really?? No – it’s just ONE slimeball with the initials FF who is worried about getting disbarred.
It’s not a bribe if it doesn’t change your vote/it’s not a lie if you write a memo to make it true #dianologic #kanelogic
LOL. Night night
This weekend,the Inquirer has done such a good job taking apart Kane and attempting to convince her not to run (by providing opposition research) that I think there’s hope a Pulitzer-hungry reporter gets to the bottom of the coincidences which led to teacher’s union pensions bailing out Tom Wolf’s company.
The reader is advised to review follow-up info on another page of Politics-PA.
politicspa.com/kanes-racial-claims-a-complete-lie/62568/
The reader is advised to skim-through 51-comments on another page of Politics-PA to gain an appreciation of how people have reacted to this growing-scandal; although some bloggers [notably David Diano and Elroy Hirsch] have attempted to defend AG-Kane, most everyone else has recognized that it is plausible she may not complete her term.
politicspa.com/brady-criticizes-kane-for-neglecting-bribery-scandal/62521/comment-page-1/#comments