Kathleen Kane (center)
Pennsylvania Democrat Kathleen Kane just became the second sitting state attorney general this week
to get indicted. On Thursday, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman charged her with perjury and obstruction of justice, stemming from a scheme to leak confidential grand jury materials to embarrass a critic and then cover up the leak. (Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, was indicted for securities fraud
on Monday.)
It's the culmination of a long investigation into Kane, and it's an amazingly quick and harsh downfall for her as well. Kane powered into office in 2012, winning more votes that year than any statewide candidate, including Barack Obama, and becoming the first woman and first Democrat ever elected attorney general. (The position had been an appointed one prior to 1980.) That sort of popularity, combined with her law-and-order profile, suggested that Kane was destined to become a rising star, but she soon derailed her own career with a series of incredibly poor choices that seemed to stem from a personal vendetta.
During her 2012 bid, Kane campaigned extensively on her claim that the probe into the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State centered around Jerry Sandusky, and led by prosecutor Frank Fina, had been stalled by Gov. Tom Corbett, who'd been attorney general at the time. Corbett, the argument went, didn't want to rile up Penn State's rabid and extensive fanbase by investigating further and implicating legendary football coach Joe Paterno. Shortly before the election, Sandusky received a 60-year sentence—effectively, life.
More than a year after Kane took office, either Fina or forces loyal to him retaliated for Kane's campaign trail slights by telling the Philadelphia Inquirer about a corruption investigation that Fina had been pursuing into several Philadelphia Democrats. Kane had spiked the inquiry, though, claiming the case was "dead before we even got to it" and further arguing it had unfairly targeted black politicians.
What were her true reasons? We don't know. Maybe she really did think it was a weak case, or that it was in fact racially problematic. Or maybe she just didn't want to anger powerful Philly pols. But Fina, who'd secured a life sentence for Sandusky, had moved over to the office of Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams right after Kane became attorney general, and Williams, who is black, picked up the corruption case and went on to secure several convictions—so "dead" the case was not.
Kane could have just let matters lie there, but instead, she fired back at Fina—and here's where everything started to unravel for her. Kane's office allegedly leaked secret grand jury materials to the Philadelphia Daily News in an attempt to undermine Fina by saying he'd dropped the ball on another investigation, this one into the head of the Philadelphia NAACP, Jerry Mondesire.
At that point, a special prosecutor started investigating, and Kane proceeded to weave a series of lies about the Mondesire leaks and even tried to blame her top deputy, Adrian King, while under oath. But emails exonerated King, who'd opposed the efforts at retaliation, and ultimately a grand jury found that Kane had given false testimony and attempted to conceal what she'd done. Ferman, the Montgomery DA, brought this sordid matter to its expected conclusion on Thursday with her indictment.
Kane has pledged to remain in office, but Gov. Tom Wolf—like Kane, a Democrat—has already called on her to step down. (He'd get to nominate a replacement if she does.) While Kane theoretically can ignore the world and insist she's going nowhere, her best bet at this point is probably a plea agreement with prosecutors that involves a reduced sentence in exchange for her resignation. No matter what happens, though, it's a sad end to a truly pathetic and petty tale.