The suspension is temporary but it does raise questions about whether it makes Kane ineligible for her office.
Advertisement
The unanimous order by the state Supreme Court’s five justices also could prompt a legal challenge from the first-term Democrat.
The suspension results from charges leveled against Kane by the district attorney of Montgomery County, accusing Kane of leaking secret grand jury information to the media and then lying about it.
The embattled attorney general has said the charges are part of an effort to force her out of office because she discovered pornographic emails being exchanged between state employees on state email addresses. In this case, the right thing for Kathleen Kane to do is to step aside so that the hardworking members of law enforcement, the Attorney General’s staff, victims of crime and the people of Pennsylvania may again have confidence and trust in the Office of Attorney General.
She vowed to keep working to “root out the culture of misogyny and racially/religiously offensive behavior that has permeated law enforcement and members of the judiciary” in Pennsylvania for years.
Kane has maintained she did nothing wrong. Ms. Kane, a Democrat in her first term, was elected in 2012.
In a statement, her private lawyers said they were disappointed in the court’s decision and predicted that she would be exonerated once her side of the story is told.
“While I am disappointed in the court’s action I am grateful that the court recognized my constitutional rights both as a democratically elected official and as a citizen of the Commonwealth”, she said.
However, Kane’s current lawyers say she did not disclose grand jury material or information kept secret under state criminal records laws.
The court’s action might also not be the only one looming for Ms. Kane.
“It’s a odd new world”, Burkoff said.
Advertisement
The petition – brought by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates attorney conduct complaints for the court – was filed in August and related to the criminal case against Kane, court papers say.
