Pennsylvania AG hires high-profile attorneys before grand jury testimony, says she followed the law
Pennsylvania’s top lawyer testified Monday before a grand jury investigating whether her office leaked secret investigative material, but told reporters beforehand that her office did nothing wrong in disclosing information and said she planned to tell the panel the truth.
“The Office of Attorney General has cooperated from the beginning of this process, and I will do the same,” state attorney general Kathleen Kane said earlier in the day. “I will tell the special prosecutor the truth and the facts surrounding the disclosure of information to the public that was done in a way that did not violate statutory or case law regarding grand jury secrecy.”
The Associated Press and the Philadelphia Inquirer have stories.
Kane also suggested that she is on the side of right and justice and is taking heat for seeking to make the criminal process transparent.
“If this can be done to me as attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of the fifth largest state in the country, I am sickened to think what can and may be done to regular, good people who don’t have the resources that I have to challenge it,” Kane said. She said she cannot fully disclose what is going on because of court orders and, in fact, cannot even fully describe the court orders.
She is represented by high-profile criminal defense lawyer Gerald Shargel and Lanny Davis, who is known for his media expertise, and is reportedly paying their fees herself. Davis, a Democrat who entered office in June 2013, is a former special White House counsel to President Bill Clinton and more recently represented Pennsylvania State University during the Jerry Sandusky scandal, the Patriot-News notes.
Another Patriot-News article provides additional details.
Update at 10:54 a.m. to add Kane’s political affiliation.
