Beemer, then the first deputy attorney general, called Attorney General Kathleen Kane and asked if he could look into it.
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During the selection process prospective jurors were able to pore over a two-page list of more than two dozen potential trial witnesses that included: former and current employees of the Office of Attorney General; county Judge William R. Carpenter, who supervised the grand jury that investigated Kane; Thomas Carluccio, the special prosecutor appointed by Carpenter to oversee the grand jury; Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams; and Patrick Rocco Reese, a member of Kane’s security detail who was convicted of contempt past year in connection with accessing email messages related to the grand jury that was investigating Kane for alleged grand jury leaks.
Kane, 50, of Scranton, is charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, official oppression and false swearing.
Beemer was with Kane during two press conferences in which she explained her reasons for quashing the Philadelphia lawmakers probe.
Kane’s former law school boyfriend, Adrian King, served as her top deputy but on Thursday endured hostile questioning from her lawyers. When Kane took office in 2013, she brought King on board as her first deputy.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) A former top aide to Pennsylvania’s attorney general testified Wednesday that his “heart sank a little” when his boss asked him to try to block a special investigation into a grand jury leak.
Morrow says that he and Kane met after the story ran to concoct a story that pinned the leak on her chief deputy, Adrian King.
Kane allegedly texted Morrow saying “where is my story?”
In his testimony, King said he did not know what was in the envelope he delivered to Morrow nor did he ask. She knew the prosecutor, Frank Fina, had shut down a 2009 investigation of an NAACP leader from Philadelphia, J. Whyatt Mondesire.
Authorities say the envelope contained a memo on the Mondesire investigation and a transcript of an interview with the top agent involved in the investigation.
Bruce Beemer, of Clarks Summit, testified when he read a newspaper article based on leaked information that Kane wasn’t concerned, and said her office had other matters to worry about.
Bruce Beemer was “relieved” when he learned a special prosecutor had been appointed to investigate a potential leak of confidential documents from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office.
“I did what she asked me to do”, he said. It’s no big deal. “We have more important things to do, ‘” Beemer testified. The legal action was not successful.
Under cross examination Thursday, Ms. Scheib said she had suffered no retaliation for speaking out to prosecutors.
After Morrow’s testimony, Kane’s lawyers questioned King, who said that though he did help provide the grand jury material in an envelope, he did not know it was inside the envelope at the time.
District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and co-prosecutors M. Stewart Ryan and Michelle Henry are handling the prosecution of the state’s top law enforcement official.
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Kane, 50, a first-term Democrat, faces charges of perjury, obstructing administration of law, abuse of office and false swearing in connection with allegations she orchestrated the illegal disclosure of confidential investigative information and secret grand jury information to the media and then engaged in acts created to hide and cover up her alleged conduct.
