So she didn’t bother to attend a Tuesday afternoon hearing in front of the Special Committee on Senate Address that may ultimately move to remove Kane from office because her law license has been suspended by the Supreme Court.
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The state Supreme Court suspended Ms. Kane’s law license after she was charged by Montgomery County prosecutors with perjury, obstruction and other crimes.
This Tuesday, Attorney General Kathleen Kane will be the subject of a removal hearing for allegedly leaking grand jury information and then lying about it. Unfortunately, leaking grand jury information to the media apparently is a practice utilized quite frequently and also has been alleged with respect to the (Jerry) Sandusky grand jury.
She has consistently questioned the committee’s constitutional authority to remove her under Article VI, Section VII, and maintains if the Senate wants to remove her, it should be through impeachment.
The Lackawanna County Democrat is scheduled to testify before the committee, but Kane is not expected there today. “Without a law license, that person does not exist”.
“To remove her on this issue… would be the wrong thing to do”, Rendell told the seven-member bipartisan committee.
His position contradicted testimony at previous hearings from other top Kane aides, who said they believed she could not effectively run the office with a suspended law license because so much of the job involved making legal decisions.
On Tuesday, Rendell countered those claims.
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) pressed him about whether his boss even showed up for work.
“While there is no accurate way to characterize what part of the attorney general’s roles and responsibilities are legal and non-legal in nature”, wrote Duecker, “it is clear that a lot of them are non-legal”. He often made decisions to prosecute or not based on policy, not the law.
Kane, a Democrat, took office in January 2013 after being elected to her post. The seventh member, Sen.
“You’re implying with the website she’s still a licensed attorney”, Scarnati said.
“I read through their testimony line by line and I felt compelled to correct the record”, he said, of his testimony.
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One witness, former acting Attorney General Walter Cohen, decided not to testify, senators said. As for her decision, apparently, not to appear before the panel, Crompton said, “her choice”.
