Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, went on trial this week on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.
Advertisement
Kane, 50, has said she won’t give up fighting what she calls the “old-boys network” in state government, but she did not seek re-election this year, and her term expires in January. Prosecutors say the envelope contained the secret grand jury documents leaked to the Daily News. “She’s incensed. She’s angry”, Henry argued, referring to alleged emails Kane wrote to colleagues at the time in which she stated, “I will not allow them to discredit me or my office” and “This is war”.
That story focused on a 2009 grand jury investigation involving former Philadelphia area NAACP leader J. Whyatt Mondesire. “Her response to me was I would never suspect you of leaking a document”. In previous grand jury testimony, he said he never opened the packet and assumed it was campaign material. “I’ve told the truth”. I guess I was still trying to protect Kathleen. Getting her elected was very important, a very important moment.
Morrow said he and Kane were close friends. (Mr. King has maintained he did not know what was in them; Mr. Morrow said Thursday that he did discuss their contents with Mr. King by phone that night.) In the recorded call, Mr. Morrow expressed doubt about the leak and called Ms. Kane “unhinged”.
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.
Consultant Josh Morrow is testifying Thursday under a grant of immunity at Kane’s perjury and corruption trial.
“It’s embarrassing to come in here and admit I lied”.
Wednesday’s testimony seems to support those claims.
As he delivered the damaging testimony against Kane, Morrow avoided looking in her direction at the defense table.
She told him about the oaths and Mr. Beemer helped her turn the information over to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, which had been investigating Ms. Kane.
King endured four appearances before a grand jury, but was never charged in the case. But they have insisted that she did this out of a commitment to transparency, not as part of a vendetta against Mr. Fina.
“Kathleen called me today about Frank Fina killing an investigation”, he told Lisko at one point.
Also, Morrow said, he feared the repeated mention of his name would reflect badly on Bucks County Democratic congressional candidate Shaughnessy N. Naughton, whom Morrow described as his fiancée.
Kane replied, “Best served cold…are we eating soon?” Morrow acknowledges telling the story to a grand jury.
During another text message exchange Morrow allegedly asked Kane to keep their activities between the two of them.
Peifer recalled a number of people who were in the room, but he conceded that he may have missed a few holdovers from the outgoing administration of Kane’s predecessor, Linda Kelly, who stepped in when Tom Corbett was elected governor.
Pennsylvania’s attorney general has arrived at court for a second day of testimony in her perjury and obstruction trial that prosecutors say stems from her drive for political revenge.
Morrow testified that as they plotted the cover-up, he and Kane met on several occasions including at a park in Dunmore, Pa., and that Kane’s security agents inspected his body to make sure he wasn’t wearing a recording device. According to the newspaper, Morrow said it all started when Kane called him and told him to get in touch with Adrian King, Kane’s former first deputy, because King had the documents Kane wanted Morrow to hand over to a Daily News reporter.
Advertisement
But Gerald L. Shargel, Kane’s lead lawyer, implied to jurors that Kane did nothing illegal.
