Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
AG Kane says she will not be stepping down
Attorney General Kathleen Kane said the whole story regarding the charges against her has not been told.
Speaking publicly for the first time since charges were brought against her last week, embattled Attorney General Kathleen Kane said the whole story regarding the charges against her has not been told and that she will not be stepping down from her post as Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor.
“Let me first repeat what my lawyers said upon my indictment so you can hear it clearly from me: I am innocent of any wrongdoing,” Kane, 49, said in a prepared statement at Wednesday’s news conference in the Capital’s media room. “I neither conspired with anyone nor did I ask or direct anyone to do anything improper or unlawful.
“My defense will not be that I am the victim of some good old boys network it will be that I broke no laws of the Commonwealth.”
Kane said under the advice of her attorneys she would not be answering questions, but would begin to shed light on what the larger part of her story leading to the charges against her is.
“It is a story that begins with pornography, racial insensitivity, and religious bigotry; more specifically, a story that begins and ends with the circulation of pornographic, racial and religiously offensive e-mails both within and outside the Corbett Attorney General’s Office,” Kane said.
The crux of the news conference was calling for Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Judge William Carpenter to fully release the names of people involved in the porn scandal that had a sitting Pennsylvania Supreme Court judge resign. She said those names could not be released because of a grand jury seal.
“For only a grand jury protec-
tive order stands in the way of my releasing their names and their e-mails to the public,” Kane said.
However, she had previously released the names of several of those involved in the scandal. During the news conference she did not explain how the release of those involved in the viewing and dissemination of pornographic emails throughout the Capital would begin to absolve her of allegedly releasing secret information from a 2009 grand jury investigation.
Kane also asked Carpenter put language in the order releasing the documents that would make Kane immune from further criminal or civil action for releasing those e-mails.
Kane said when those documents are released she will schedule a press conference and will then answer questions.
Her attorneys Gerald Shargel and Ross Kramer were not immediately available to for comment on Wednesday.
Carpenter said he hadn’t had a chance to review the statement Kane made on Wednesday. The judge added he isn’t aware of any official request made by Kane regarding the e-mails she referenced during her news conference.
“I think it is the beginning to her side of the story,” Chuck Ardo, Kane’s spokesman, said after the news conference on Wednesday. Kane has been charged with obstructing the administration of law, official oppression, perjury, criminal conspiracy and false swearing. Kane surrendered herself on Saturday in Montgomery County but did not address members of the press before or after her arraignment.
The attorney general is charged with releasing secret information from a 2009 investigating grand jury to a reporter at The Philadelphia Daily News in an effort to get back at Frank Fina, a former state prosecutor, who she believed released information about an investigation Kane shut down to the Philadelphia Inquirer to embarrass her.
The affidavit of probable cause states that after The Philadelphia Inquirer story, Kane wanted revenge and that she sent an attorney to send a package to a political operative in Philadelphia. That package allegedly contained secret grand jury information from the 2009 grand jury investigating J. Whyatt Mondesire.
After the story came out in The Daily News, Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter, who oversaw the state-wide investigating grand jury, appointed special prosecutor Thomas Carluccio to investigate the grand jury leak.
Prosecutors further allege that Kane knowingly lied to that investigating grand jury to cover up the leak. Further, allegedly at Kane’s direction, Patrick Reese, a member of her security detail, went into an email collection system and searched for e-mails connected to the investigating grand jury which violated an August 2014 court order Carpenter put into place to bar employees in the Office of Attorney General from getting a hold of grand jury information.
Reese was arraigned and released on unsecured bail on Tuesday. He is charged with indirect criminal contempt and will face a hearing on Sept. 9 before Carpenter.
Kane will face a preliminary hearing in front of District Judge Kathleen Kelly Rebar on Aug. 24.
State officials on both sides of the aisle have called for Kane to step down including top Republican leaders in the house and senate and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. On Wednesday, Kane said during the course of the investigation against her she has been able to maintain her office and continue to make Pennsylvania a safe place.
Carl Hessler Jr. contributed to this report.
“I think it is the beginning to her side of the story.” — Kane spokesman Chuck Ardo