Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor will find herself at the defense table in the first evidence hearing on charges she leaked grand jury material to the press, lied about it under oath and ordered top aides to illegally snoop through computer files to keep tabs on the investigation that followed.
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However, after the media realized what had happened they waited for Kane to come back out again and captured her face, this time with twin Ellen Granahan in the background.
A judge in the Kathleen Kane case has ruled that there is enough evidence for Attorney General Kathleen Kane to stand trial.
She is the first woman elected attorney general in Pennsylvania and has called out former lawyers in the office and even a Supreme Court justice in a probe of pornography circulated on state email. “A little too slow for my taste, but we’re looking forward to a trial”, said Kane’s attorney Gerald Shargel.
Shargel noted his displeasure with the evidentiary rules at the preliminary hearing level, which significantly restrict the issues the defense can raise.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve learned not to respond to the claims of criminal defendants, or their lawyers”, Fina said. A trial date will be set at the October arraignment. A citizen activist has asked a state disciplinary board to remove her from office.
Bradbury recounted information several other witnesses provided in testimony before the grand jury and subsequent interviews with investigators, including Bruce Beemer, who now serves as Kane’s first deputy attorney general.
The district attorney conducted an independent investigation of a statewide grand jury’s conclusion that Kane should be charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and official oppression.
“She may have access to grand jury information by virtue of her position, but she may not disclose it without a disclosure order from a judge”, Steele said in his closing arguments.
In retribution, according to the district attorney’s office, Kane allegedly leaked secret information from the 2009 grand jury, the criminal complaint said.
Kane is also accused of lying to a grand jury about her involvement in the grand jury leaks. “I’m going to go beyond what I said in court”, Shargel said.
Shargel did his best to tear holes in the prosecution’s case, raising objections that caused some extended sparring with Judge Reber.
Kane was charged on August 6.
Kane did not comment to reporters as she headed to the courtroom. But her stock began to fall through a series of political dramas.Kane and her prosecutors have painted wildly different pictures of the circumstances that led to the charges.
Mr. Duecker remains Kane’s chief of staff, despite a recommendation this spring from the attorney general’s human resources office that he be fired.
“I am not right here as a potted plant. I’m here to represent my client”, Shargel said.
Peifer testified that he was asked to bring a memorandum from a 2009 grand jury investigating former Philadelphia NAACP leader J. Whyatt Mondesire to Kane.
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Mondesire wasn’t charged with a criminal offense.
