A former justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and several prominent state attorneys could be among those taking the witness stand in Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s perjury trial, a judge revealed during jury selection in the case on Monday.
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She said Ms. Kane’s trial on perjury, conspiracy, obstruction, and other charges would last a week.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, who ran in the Democratic primary this year for Kane’s office.
Kane nonetheless appeared confident seated at the defense table Monday beside a five-person legal team led by NY trial lawyer Gerald Shargel, perhaps best known for winning an acquittal for mob boss John Gotti. Kane is now facing charges that she illegally leaked grand jury information to harm a political rival.
Kane remains on the job even though she lost her law license over the felony arrest. According to the Legal Intelligencer, the list of witnesses includes former prosecutors, Kane former staffers, and journalists. She denies wrongdoing and claims she’s a victim of an “old boys” network in state politics.
About 150 potential jurors were expected to arrive Monday at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, where Kane previously appeared before a grand jury investigating the leak of 2009 grand jury information about a former NAACP official.
County prosecutors allege they discovered evidence that Kane signed a so-called “secrecy oath” on her second day in office on January 17, 2013, promising her secrecy for statewide investigating grand juries one through 32.
She wanted the state Supreme Court to look into the grand jury, but the Supreme Court decided not to intervene.
Earlier in the day, the judge read a list of people who will either be witnesses at the trial or whose names may come up in testimony.
Kathleen Kane, 50, a Scranton Democrat, is the second Pennsylvania attorney general in modern history to face criminal charges.
The potential jurors were also asked whether they would have difficulty convicting or acquitting Ms. Kane based on her position as the state’s top law enforcement official, or whether the media attention to the case would affect them.
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“We have our jury”, Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy declared as prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed on the panel.
