Attorney General
Kathleen Kane, the first woman elected to the office, showed little emotion as jurors announced their verdict. The jurors agreed Kane leaked information about a
2009 grand jury probe to embarrass a rival prosecutor.
The leak grew out of Kane’s feud with former office prosecutor Frank Fina. According to trial testimony, Kane believed Fina had planted a story that showed she had dropped a statehouse sting.
Kane, 50, was once a rising star in the state’s Democratic party, using her then-husband’s trucking fortune to run for statewide office after stints as a Scranton prosecutor and a stay-at-home mother.
But an early honeymoon period in office, when she spoke out for the legalization of gay marriage, was soon marred by turmoil as she sparred with officials inside and outside the office.
She described the charges as payback for her efforts to take on an “old-boys network” in state government that traded offensive, mildly pornographic emails. Her investigation led two state Supreme Court justices and others to resign.
Perjury, the only felony charged, can bring up to seven years in prison. The misdemeanor charges Kane faced included conspiracy, official oppression and false swearing. Kane lost her law license over the charges.
[USA Today]