“I have been honored to serve the people of Pennsylvania and I wish them health and safety in all their days”, Kane said.
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Pennsylvania State Attorney General Kathleen Kane has been found guilty of perjury and obstruction, prompting renewed calls for her resignation.
The sentence for the perjury charge – the most serious offense – carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.
Kane does not have to resign immediately, and could potentially remain in office until a new attorney general is elected in November and sworn in January 17.
Kane has lost her law license over the charges and is not seeking reelection, but under Pennsylvania law she could remain in office as the appeals process plays out.
Seeking payback, she ordered aides to leak secret investigative information to the Philadelphia Daily News in an effort to show that her perceived enemies had bungled a 2009 probe into a Philadelphia NAACP official, Montgomery County prosecutors said. She allegedly was angry that she had been publicly accused of dropping a political investigation, and she sought to retaliate against her rivals by smearing them in the press with confidential documents. Top state senators threatened a vote ordering her removal from office under a constitutional provision never used in modern history.
When the Philadelphia Inquirer story broke, Kane believed that she was being exposed only because she brought down some of the “good old boys” in Pennsylvania for their pornographic and racist emails in 2014. But Kane’s animus toward former prosecutors in the attorney general’s office, including Frank Fina, who led the Sandusky prosecution, appeared to continue. Fina probably would have flown under the radar this entire time were it not for his political rivalry with Kane.
Suspecting a former state prosecutor leaked the story to the Inquirer, Kane sought payback and ordered aides to leak secret investigative information to the Philadelphia Daily News created to show that that prosecutor had never filed charges in a 2009 probe into a Philadelphia NAACP official, prosecutors said.
Kane’s team didn’t call any witnesses to her defense. The misdemeanour charges include conspiracy, official oppression and false swearing.
Sentences imposed in 77 percent of the 600 cases she handled a year ago were within the standard range set out by the guidelines.
The curtain came down on “The Kane Scrutiny” last night. She blamed Fina for the breach and told the public by way of explanation that she thought the corruption case targeted African Americans and was poorly managed.
“We have arguments to make on whether this trial was fair, we intend to pursue all arguments that are available to us, we’re not going to walk away from any arguments”, he said. Kane hired Castor, a Republican, as her second-in-command in March, installing him in a newly created position of solicitor general with a $150,000 salary. I implore Attorney General Kane to do what is right: “put the commonwealth’s residents first and step down from office”, he said.
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Even a former Kane supporter, Northumberland County Democratic Chairman Rodger Babnew, said last week’s four-day trial surfaced disappointing details about Kane’s conduct.
