Docs: Grand Jury Recommended Charges Against Kane
https://twitter.com/deannadurante/status/557994279080304641
Documents released today by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court confirm that a grand jury has recommended charges be brought against Attorney General Kathleen Kane for the leak of information from an earlier grand jury.
The documents were unsealed as part of a broader court battle involving Kane, who is challenging the authority of the special prosecutor who led the grand jury, as well as the judge who appointed the prosecutor.
“Kane’s defense team argued a Montgomery County judge had no authority to appoint a special prosecutor to run a grand jury under state law and the state constitution’s separation of powers clause prohibits the court from investigating a member of the executive branch, Kane,” The Morning Call reports. “The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the motion to quash the grand jury and unsealed the records as requested by Kane’s defense lawyers.”
The unsealed documents don’t detail the case against Kane. Instead, Judge William Carpenter, who supervised the grand jury, revealed in a filing that the grand jury had recommended charges of perjury, false swearing, official oppression, and obstruction of law. Two documents from that grand jury disclosed that it found “reasonable grounds to believe that various violations of the criminal laws have occurred.” But Lanny Davis, Kane’s attorney, noted that those recommended charges don’t include any allegations of illegal leaking.
Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman is currently considering whether to accept the grand jury’s recommendations.
Kane, in the meantime, is fending off suggestions that she resign.
“No, I won’t resign,” the Inquirer reports she said today. “I promised people of Pennsylvania that I would fight public corruption. That is exactly what this is. Court systems are being used to overturn an election of somebody they just don’t like. … And quite honestly if they can do it to me, they’ll do it to someone else.”
Philly Mag explained grand jury secrecy in an article earlier today. Below, the court document that contains exhibits revealing the grand jury’s charging recommendations.
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