Pa. attorney general guilty in perjury case
Associated Press
NORRISTOWN, PA.
The state’s attorney general was convicted Monday of all nine charges against her in a perjury and obstruction case related to a grand jury leak, but insisted she’s innocent and vowed to appeal.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane, the first Democrat and first woman elected to the office, showed little emotion as jurors announced their verdict Monday. The jurors agreed Kane leaked information about a 2009 grand jury probe to embarrass a rival prosecutor.
A lawyer for Kane, in closing arguments earlier Monday, had 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.
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.