Good day all. Once again I have brought out my standing headline with regards to crooked Democrats. This time, it’s the Attorney General of the state of Pennsylvania who was just convicted of several crimes.
The Attorney General, one Kathleen Kane, wasn’t convicted of the usual list of crimes Democrats are famous for, (Corruption, influence peddling, bribe taking, etc), she was convicted of Perjury and Obstruction. Here are some of the details from Fox News:
The state’s attorney general was convicted Monday of all nine counts in a perjury and obstruction case related to a grand jury leak. Attorney General Kathleen Kane showed little emotion as jurors announced their verdict late Monday. The jurors agreed the first-term Democrat leaked information about a 2009 grand jury probe to embarrass a rival prosecutor.
I’ve known about this case in a general sense for a while now. I wasn’t aware until the other day that it had gone to trial. Basically, Ms. Kane, who is a very attractive, and apparently a very vindictive lady, couldn’t handle the slings and arrows that come with her position. Some grand jury information leaked to the press regarding some corruption cases and that’s when the fun began. Ms. Kane’s defense team tried to blame it all on other people of course.
Earlier, a lawyer for Kane in closing arguments blamed her former top aides for the leak of grand jury material, which found its way to a newspaper. Kane wanted the public to know her predecessor had failed to prosecute a case involving an NAACP official, but she never authorized the leak of secret criminal files, said her lawyer, Seth Farber.
Instead, he said, Kane’s chief deputy, Adrian King, abused his power when he sent the files to a reporter through Kane’s political consultant. King and the consultant, Josh Morrow, testified against Kane last week.
Morrow, who had a grant of immunity, said he and Kane devised a cover-up story that framed King for the leak. He acknowledged telling the lie to a grand jury.
“Those are two witnesses who will say whatever they need to in order to protect themselves,” Farber said. “You would not even buy a used car from either one of them.”
I’m no great fan of immunity deals, but prosecutors use them all the time to catch bigger fish. As long as there was other evidence to corroborate their testimony, then I guess it’s ok. After all, a State’s AG is a very powerful position and you don’t want someone in the office who will abuse their authority.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele noted, though, that Kane had chosen the men as confidants. Text messages and phone records show frequent interactions among them on key days in the prosecution’s timeline: when the documents changed hands, when the Philadelphia Daily News article appeared and when a grand jury started to investigate the leak.
You would think, in this day and age, that when you are plotting to commit nefarious deeds, you would remember NOT to use anything that can be traced or accessed? Pulling phone records is the first thing investigators do.
The leak grew out of Kane’s feud with former office prosecutor Frank Fina, he said. According to trial testimony, Kane believed Fina had planted a story that showed she had dropped a statehouse sting.
“She was just hell-bent on getting back at Frank Fina,” Morrow testified last week, describing Kane as “unhinged” at the time.
As you would expect, Kathleen Kane blamed everybody for her problems.
Kane, 50, was once a rising star in the state’s Democratic party, using her then-husband’s trucking fortune to run for statewide office after stints as a Scranton prosecutor and a stay-at-home mother. But an early honeymoon period in office, when she spoke out for the legalization of gay marriage, was soon marred by turmoil as she sparred with officials inside and outside the office.
She staunchly described the charges as payback for her efforts to take on an “old-boys network” in state government that traded offensive, mildly pornographic emails.
Well, she managed to get a couple of people.
Her investigation led two state Supreme Court justices and others to resign. Now that she is a convicted criminal, you would expect her to resign or be removed from office.
Well, there’s a small problem with that. There’s no mechanism to remove a crooked AG in Pennsylvania apparently.
Public officials convicted of official misconduct in Pennsylvania typically don’t have to resign until they are sentenced. Kane could stay in office while she appeals, the governor’s office said.
Perjury, the only felony charged, can bring up to seven years in prison. The misdemeanor charges Kane faced included conspiracy, official oppression and false swearing.
Honestly, I’d be surprised if she served a day in jail. Of course, the judge could be a member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Old Boys Club and he might send up the river for a couple of years for some serious “Me” time. As it is, she has been disbarred and isn’t going to run for reelection. I’m not sure, but I don’t think a non-lawyer can be AG in Pennsylvania.
Of course, Kane’s problem was her name. If she had been “Kathleen Clinton” she would have been given a complete pass. After all, she didn’t set up a private mail server with the goal of hiding things from Congress, and also send top secret messages though it that was probably stolen by pretty much everyone. Perhaps she should have arranged to be adopted or something into the Clinton Crime Family.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
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