Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s trial began today.
The Commonwealth’s top lawyer has been charged with perjury and obstruction all relating to an article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In that article, grand jury information that was supposed to remain secret was leaked.
State prosecutors claim that it was Kane who leaked the information in order to get revenge on Frank Fina. Kane believed that Fina leaked information about her decision to shut down a sting operation that involved several Philly officials according to prosecutor Michelle Henry.
Detective Paul Bradbury was the first to take the stand. In his testimony, he went over various emails and texts including one email in particular where Kane wrote “This is war.” That email was written on the day the article about the sting operation came out.
Replying to that email, Kane’s media consultant J.J. Balaban sent a reply that she should “make war with Fina, but not with the Inquirer.”
Later on Bruce Beemer, a former aide to Kane, took the stand to explain what happened when he read the Inquirer article. He said that the article referenced a secret memo and that the leak, “had to have come out of our [the AG’s] office.”
“There would have only been a limited number of people who should have had access to a document like that,” he added.
In opening arguments before Beemer took the stand, Kane’s defense attorney argued that the Attorney General was a victim herself as she was fed lies and cover-ups from staffers.
Contrary to the prosecution’s claims Gerald Shargel, Kane’s counsel, said that she did not care “one whit about Frank Fina” and that Kane barely knew who Fina was.
While admitting that Kane made mistakes, such as saying she had not signed an oath of secrecy dealing with the grand jury testimony when she had, Shargel said they were “honest mistakes” and not part of anything malicious.
“Let me be clear: Attorney General Kathleen Kane did not leak any grand jury material,” Shargel asserted. “It just does not make sense that she would risk her reputation and her career.”
The trial will resume tomorrow morning.
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7 Responses
The trial judge is tight with the special prosecutor and a good friend of the DA that brought the charges. Doesn’t seem right.
Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!
SHE’S GUILTY AS SIN, YOU STUPID F-HEADS.
They are grasping at straws. Kane didn’t play the game and ignore the corruption she found. So they went after her. Bogus, trumped up nonsense.
If the trial goes according to the pathetic grand jury report, the jury will find her NOT GUILTY in five seconds.
Something is fishy about this prosecution. Kane may have been naive when she took office, but she is not a criminal. There are some very powerful people out to get the Attorney General.
I agree with gulag. In fact – this was worse than a witch-hunt. It was a set-up orchestrated by Fina & The Corbett Pervs.
These charges are a witch hunt in retaliation for Kane exposure of the old boys network of porn emails and backdoor chumminess between judges (including PA Supreme Court) and prosecutors.
Tons of leaks occurred against Kane by ex-prosecutors (such as Frank Fina, recently resigned from Philly DA Seth Williams staff) and PA Disciplinary Board, yet no charges and not even any known investigations of those leaks.