Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane Disbarred

Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who is serving a jail sentence for various criminal offenses, finally lost her license to practice law in the state.

On Friday, the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ordered Kane’s disbarment on consent from the state’s Bar.

In September 2015, the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania temporarily suspended Kane’s law license. At the time, she submitted her unconditional resignation from the practice of law in the state because she was facing criminal charges.

Criminal offenses

On August 2016, the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas convicted her of criminal offenses including perjury, false swearing, obstructing administration of law, conspiracy to obstruct administration of law, official oppression, and conspiracy to commit oppression to deny rights.

During the sentencing hearing in October 2016, Kane pleaded for leniency citing the reason that she has teenage children. She also argued that losing her law license and position as attorney general was already a punishment. Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy disagreed and sentenced her to 10-23 months in jail and 8 years of probation.

Judge Demchick-Alloy explained that Kane deserves a prison sentence. According to her, “a violation of this magnitude and severity is an extraordinary abuse of the sentence.

Kane appealed the conviction. She argued that the judges in Montgomery Court recused themselves from handling her case. She alleged that the judges had connections to the grand jury investigation. The disgraced former attorney general also argued that he prosecutors used vindictive tactics to obtain her conviction.

A three-judge panel of the Superior Court rejected her arguments and upheld her conviction. Kane filed a petition for allowance of appeal at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

On November 26 last year, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Kane’s appeal and ordered her to serve her sentence.

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Former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane Disbarred

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Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane resigns after criminal conviction

Kathleen Kane, once a rising star in Pennsylvania politics, said Tuesday that she will resign as the state’s attorney general after she was found guilty of nine criminal charges, including two felony perjury counts.

“I have been honored to serve the people of Pennsylvania and I wish them health and safety in all their days,” the first-term Democrat said in a statement the afternoon after her conviction.

Kane, who was elected in 2012, was accused of leaking information to the media about a 2009 grand jury probe as a way to get back at Frank Fina, a political rival and former state prosecutor.

Prosecutors said Kane masterminded the leak and a subsequent coverup — and then lied to a grand jury about it.

After hearing days of dramatic testimony, a 12-person jury in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County agreed with prosecutors, finding Kane guilty Monday of two counts of felony perjury, as well as obstruction, false swearing and other misdemeanor charges.

Kane, 50, faces up to seven years in prison on each of the felony perjury charges. Under state law, she was required to resign by the day of her sentencing.

[How racy emails and a grand jury leak brought down a political rising star] 

 

“It seemed we had somebody who felt she was above the law,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele told reporters outside the courtroom after the verdict was delivered. “This was about the defendant going before a grand jury in Montgomery County and lying to that grand jury.

The evidence was overwhelming in that regard.”

Calls for Kane to resign had mounted soon after the verdict was delivered late Monday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) called it a “sad day” for the state and said “there should be no question” Kane should resign immediately, according to PennLive.com.

Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry joined the chorus of those denouncing Kane’s actions.

“What she did while she was the attorney general, the fact she would commit criminal acts while the top prosecutor, is a disgrace,” Henry said after the verdict.

On Tuesday, after Kane’s announcement, Wolf, the governor, said “her decision to resign is the right one, and will allow the people of Pennsylvania to finally move on from this situation.” (Click to Continue)

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Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane resigns after criminal conviction

Pennsylvania's attorney general found guilty in perjury case

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's attorney general showed little emotion Monday night as she was convicted of leaking grand jury secrets and lying about it under oath.

In calling her a flight risk, the judge ordered Kathleen Kane, 50, to surrender her passport and threatened to jail her if she retaliated against the once-trusted aides who testified against her.

"The court is concerned, especially with respect to her potential to flee, particularly with her going to Haiti (in 2014) in the middle of her office's tumult, and leaving no one watching the store," Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy told Kane's lawyers.

Kane's political consultant, testifying with a grant of immunity, changed his grand jury testimony last week to tell jurors that he had "conspired" with Kane to leak the grand jury material and then frame her chief deputy for the crime.

Kane, a first-term Democrat who had never held elected office, enjoyed a brief honeymoon period in 2013 before her agency descended into chaos as she feuded with officials inside and outside of the department.

When she suspected a former office prosecutor had leaked a critical news article about her shutting down a statehouse probe, she decided to leak word that he had shut down an investigation into an NAACP official in 2009, the jury found.

The NAACP official, who was never charged, was smeared in the process, authorities said.

Kane had the material sent to a reporter through chief deputy Adrian King and political consultant Josh Morrow.

"Where is my story? I'm dying here," she texted Morrow as the Philadelphia Daily News reporter worked on the story, according to texts shown to the jury.

Defense lawyer Seth Farber, in closing arguments Monday, said Morrow and King would "say whatever they need to in order to protect themselves."

Text messages and phone records show frequent interactions among the three of them on key days in the prosecution's timeline: when the documents changed hands, when the Daily News article appeared and when a grand jury started to investigate the leak.

A top deputy told the jury he was alarmed by the contents of the June 2014 article. He testified Kane told him it was no big deal.

"Who would say that other than the person that is responsible for it?" Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele asked.

Kane did not testify during the trial or call any defense witnesses.

"The conviction on all counts ... was a crushing blow, but we have not lost our resolve," said defense lawyer Gerald Shargel, who said he would appeal the judge's decision to exclude evidence about the offensive, mildly pornographic emails Kane found on state computers.

"We have been denied the opportunity to mount a full defense," Shargel said.

Perjury, the only felony charged, can bring up to seven years in prison. The misdemeanor charges include conspiracy, official oppression and false swearing.

Gov. Tom Kane, a fellow Democrat, renewed his previous calls for Kane to step down. She already has lost her law license over the charges. However, officials in Pennsylvania do not have to resign over misconduct until they are sentenced.

"What she did while she was the attorney general, the fact she would commit criminal acts while the top prosecutor, is a disgrace," assistant district attorney Michelle Henry said after the verdict.

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Pennsylvania's attorney general found guilty in perjury case