Another state leader calls for Attorney General’s resignation
AP
HARRISBURG– Voices in the state government are getting louder as they ask for the Attorney General to step down. State House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-Indiana) joined democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in calling for Kathleen Kane to resign amidst pending criminal charges.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman filed several criminal counts against the Attorney General on Thursday, “The charges include obstruction of the administration of law and other offenses that relate to a scheme that we allege she orchestrated to leak confidential, investigative information and secret grand jury materials and then lying to a grand jury to cover up and conceal her crimes.”
Majority Leader Reed said in a press release Friday that the Attorney General does have a right to due process and remains innocent until proven guilty, but that “The people of Pennsylvania are also entitled to an attorney general whose sole focus is on protecting their safety…we cannot afford to have such a distraction.” Attorney General Kane has maintains she is innocent and said she looks forward to defending herself in a public court of law. (John Brunner)
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor is taking on the new role of criminal defendant. State Attorney General Kathleen Kane is to be arraigned Saturday in the Philadelphia suburb of Montgomery County on charges that she leaked secret grand jury information and then lied about it. The 49-year-old Kane is the first woman and first Democrat to be elected Pennsylvania’s attorney general.
She maintains she is innocent amid growing calls for her resignation from editorialists and fellow Democrats, including Gov. Tom Wolf. Prosecutors say Kane leaked grand jury information to a newspaper to get even with a former state prosecutor she thought made her look bad. They also say she enlisted aides to spy on office employees and others to keep tabs on a grand jury probe into the leak.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – While Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane waits to be arraigned on charges that she leaked secret grand jury information, some critics want action to force her out of office. Retired state Supreme Court Justice Ronald Castille, who authorized the grand jury probe that led to the charges, said Friday that Kane should step down. But, she has refused to resign.
Castille says the court, working through its disciplinary board, could order an emergency suspension of Kane’s law license if it believes her alleged misconduct has been “egregious.” Though Kane would have 10 days to fight a suspension, Castille says a suspension would remove her from office because the state constitution requires the attorney general to have a law license. Another possible scenario calls for Kane’s impeachment by the Legislature.