Kathleen Kane charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, abuse of office
Wallace McKelvey
on August 06, 2015 at 11:00 AM, updated August 06, 2015 at 12:12 PM
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is being charged with perjury, obstructing administration of law and other charges that allege she orchestrated a campaign to leak secret information, then lied to a grand jury about it.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman said Kane is accused of a scheme in which "we allege she orchestrated to leak confidential investigative information and secret grand jury" information, then lied to a grand jury about that.
Kane, a Democrat who swept into office in 2012 in a decisive victory, has been mired in skirmishes with former staffers and faced a grand jury investigation into leaks of sealed information from her office.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman launched a review of the alleged grand jury leaks involving Kane since March, when the Supreme Court rejected Kane's challenge to how the original investigation was handled.
- READ MORE: 7 things you need to know about alleged grand jury leaks
Kane has vowed that she will fight the charges, and will not resign.
"Her position is that she believes she has done nothing wrong and that a resignation would be an admission of guilt," said her spokesman, Chuck Ardo, Wednesday night.
A conviction on the charges would lead to Kane's immediate removal from office, although calls for her impeachment preceded the announcement by months. According to the Pennsylvania Constitution, the House can begin impeachment proceedings to remove officials due to "misbehavior in office."
- MORE: The Capitol Corruption Parade
State Sen. John Rafferty, R-Montgomery County, has already announced his 2016 candidacy for post.
"I want to remind you that we've always maintained and continue to maintain that the attorney general is innocent of any wrongdoing and has no plans to resign her office," Kane's attorney, George Shargel, said when reached Wednesday night.
The charges announced Thursday marks a significant fall for Kane, 49, after the successes of her first year in office. The state's first female elected attorney general quashed then-Gov. Tom Corbett's attempt to privatize the state lottery, pursued charges in the Pennsylvania Turnpike pay-to-play scandal and drew national media attention for her refusal to defend the state's gay marriage ban.
But the leak investigation was only the most prominent controversy Kane has faced.
She was forced to make a series of retractions to public statements, including erroneous information about additional Sandusky victims, and was criticized for her handling of a bribery case involving Democratic lawmakers, including from Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.
Last fall, 61 of Kane's employees were implicated in a state email porn controversy that was discovered during her review of the Sandusky investigation.
The attorney general continued to dominate headlines this spring with a succession of firings from her office, including a prosecutor who had testified in the leak investigation. That firing became part of the larger investigation.
In recent months, Kane herself has kept a relatively low profile as her office pursued a number of significant cases, from child porn stings to a search warrant executed at former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed's home.
Kathleen Kane criminal charges
Patrick Rocco Reese, criminal complaint
Despite the increased scrutiny, a poll of Pennsylvania residents last month showed that nearly half hadn't formed an opinion of Kane's situation. More than a third said she should resign.
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