Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane Found Guilty | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
[*This post has been updated to correctly reflect the number of charges lodged against Kathleen Kane.]
Kathleen Kane went to war to punish her enemies. And she went all in, leaking secret grand jury material to embarrass the critics she believed were out to get her.
In prosecuting it, Kane ended the careers of two state Supreme Court justices. She hounded others from state government in a single-minded attempt to root out an "Old Boys" network of e-p**n trading judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys.
And on Monday, Kane"s war claimed its final victim, the attorney general herself, as a Montgomery County jury,comprised of the very voters she"d once sworn to protect, made a clean sweep of it.
The Democratic Attorney General was found guilty on all ninecounts lodged against her, including two felony perjury counts and other misdemeanor counts that included false swearing, obstructing justice, conspiracy and official oppression.
Kane, of Lackawanna County, betrayed no emotion as the jury rendered its verdict, PennLive"s Wallace McKelvey reported.
But it"s tempting to think what emotions must have been roiling her.
She"d once been mentioned as a potential governor, perhaps even a future United States Senator.
The catalogs of her early successes was an impressive one. She closed the so-called "Florida loophole" on gun permits; she derailed Republican Gov. Tom Corbett"s efforts to privatize the day-to-day management of the Pennsylvania Lottery; She famously refused to defend the state"s gay marriage ban, punting a political hot potato back to Corbett himself.
Then, the unraveling. The unforced errors. The botched cases, including revelations of anaborted Philly corruption sting that prompted her to lash out at her critics in the first place.
Thestar that rose and shone so brightly with her election in 2012, as the first woman and first Democrat to serve in the post, went nova with stunning speed.
The history here is worth considering
The jury"s verdict came 21 years and not quite two months after another Attorney General, Republican Ernie Preate, who, like Kane, hails from Scranton,pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud charges and was trundled off to prison to serve a 14-month sentence.
He"d been a rising star once too, andbragged three decades ago that he could serve his time "standing on his head."
But the judicial system, as Preate learned, and Kane has too, or may soon learn, is the great equalizer.
These days, Preate, who literally wrote the book on how to put someone to death, practices law in Scranton andpursues reforms to the very judicial system he once wielded like a cudgelagainst others.
Preate resigned just nine days after entering his plea in June 1995. Under court precedent, Kane doesn"t have to step down until she"s sentenced, which could take weeks.
She could hang on until then. But what would be the point of such an exercise?
For all practical purposes, Kane hasn"t been attorney general in months, since the state Supreme Court suspended her law license.
Bruce L. Castor, the former Montgomery County DA who ran unsuccessfully for AG himself, has been running the office in her absence, leaving little reason for her to stay in a job she no longer does.
She"s not running for re-election. Her career in politics is over.
And if Kane doesn"t quit, it"s entirely likely that the General Assembly will act to remove her. The Republican leaders in the House and Senate called on her to quit, as did Gov. Tom Wolf.
What could happen if not?
Impeachment proceedings willlikely grind back into motionin the House. The state Senate couldresurrect its effort to use an obscure clause of the state Constitution to bounce her from office.
Some wars have victors, generals who can point to hard won territory that charted their path to victory.
Others can only stand among smoldering wreckage of their defeat and contemplate the magnitude of their ruin.
"Wars have casualties," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said during closing arguments on Monday. "Wars leave scars."
And scars take years to heal - if they ever do at all.
Source: http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2016/08/kathleen_kanes_war_claims_its.html
