DA blasts AG for saying corruption case against lawmakers shouldn't be prosecuted
In a corruption case against two Pennsylvania lawmakers, it’s the prosecutors who are making headlines.
Philadelphia’s district attorney, Seth Williams, blasted the state attorney general, Kathleen Kane, for saying that a corruption case he announced Tuesday was flawed and racially biased and shouldn’t be prosecuted, the Morning Call, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report. Both the DA and the AG are Democrats, as are the defendant state representatives.
“As an African-American and as a law enforcement official, I was disgusted that the attorney general would bring racism into this case,” Williams said. “It’s like pouring gasoline on the fire for no reason, no reason at all.”
He said evidence in the bribery case against Rep. Ronald Waters, 64, and Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, 48, includes video of them accepting payments. Additionally, “Both officials personally appeared before our grand jury and fully, I repeat fully, admitted they knowingly took cash payments,” the DA said.
The case was originally investigated by the AG’s office before Kane took the helm. After she declined to prosecute, Williams pursued it.
In a Tuesday statement, a Kane spokeswoman said the AG’s office was troubled by aspects of the case, including a plea deal to drop charges against an informant posing as a lobbyist who obtained recorded evidence against the two lawmakers. The informant had been accused of defrauding a low-income food program.
Related coverage:
The Intelligencer (opinion): “Wishful Thinking”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-judge acquitted on all but 1 count now faces new criminal case as DA revives AG’s dropped probe”
