Criminal charges brought Thursday against Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane and an agent who also served as her driver stem from the alleged leak of secret documents related to a grand jury investigation. Kane has denied any wrongdoing.
A look at the allegations:
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LEAKING SECRET DOCUMENTS
Suspecting a former prosecutor was the source for a critical March 2014 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kane ordered her staff to dig into one of his old cases and allegedly leaked secret documents to a reporter in an attempt at payback.
Witnesses said Kane was incensed about an article on her dropping a political bribery investigation involving Black Philadelphia lawmakers and wanted to smear the suspected source, former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina.
“This is war,” she said in an email to a media strategist.
The Philadelphia Daily News published an article in June 2014 about Fina’s investigation into a former NAACP official. The article was based on secret material pertaining to the 2009 grand jury probe, prosecutors said.
The official was never charged.
The alleged leaks led to the appointment of a special prosecutor and a grand jury investigation that resulted in the charges announced Thursday.
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INTIMIDATING WITNESSES
The grand jury leak investigation relied heavily on the testimony of Kane’s employees.
Prosecutors said the names of witnesses and the dates and times of their scheduled secret testimony were well known within the attorney general’s office.
Witnesses reported being confronted with intimidating conduct as they arrived to testify. Prosecutors said Kane’s office also collected transcripts of witness testimony.
Kane openly questioned why the office was cooperating with the grand jury leak investigation, witnesses said, and threatened to fire employees who didn’t follow her orders, including a mandate to challenge a court order protecting the probe’s secrecy.
“If I get taken out of here in handcuffs, what do you think my last act will be,” Kane said, according to testimony from First Deputy Attorney General Bruce Beamer.
Montgomery County Prosecutor Risa Vetri Ferman praised the current and former members of Kane’s staff who shared information. “It takes tremendous courage to stand up and, in essence, tell on your boss,” she said.
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SNOOPING ON INVESTIGATION
Kane’s driver, also a supervisory special agent, snooped on the grand jury leak investigation using his access to the attorney general’s employee email archiving system, in violation of a court order to stay away.
Patrick Reese, the former police chief in Kane’s hometown of Dunmore, is accused of searching for emails referencing the judge, subpoenas, transcripts and perjury and checking for emails involving reporters and a special prosecutor.
The criminal affidavit says Reese refused to cooperate with investigators. Reese’s lawyer had no comment. .
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LYING TO GRAND JURY
Subpoenaed to testify last November, Kane told the grand jury that the release of information on Fina’s 2009 case had nothing to do with the Inquirer article.
Prosecutors say the testimony was part of a pattern of lies Kane told in an attempt to conceal her alleged crimes.
Kane said she never saw a confidential memo cited in the Daily News article, had a limited role in the leak and didn’t read the article for two months after it was published.
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