Aide: Pa. Attorney General Kane doesn’t doubt she faces charges

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Attorney General Kathleen Kane has no reason to doubt reports she’s about to be criminally charged, a top aide said Thursday.

A grand jury recommended in December that Kane be charged in connection with allegations she unlawfully leaked information from a 2009 investigation, apparently to embarrass her critics.

Kane spokesman Chuck Ardo said she is aware of news reports she faces criminal charges and “has no reason to doubt them.”

Kane has denied illegally leaking information and has said she won’t step down.

In 2012, she became the first woman and first Democrat elected attorney general in Pennsylvania since it became an elected office in 1980.

She would be the second state attorney general to face criminal charges this week and the second Pennsylvania attorney general charged in the last 20 years.

An indictment unsealed Monday charged Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with securities fraud. Ernest Preate resigned as Pennsylvania’s attorney general in 1995 and served a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud related to a campaign contribution.