Pennsylvania AG doesn't testify in her obstruction trial; reporter won't say who leaked documents
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
Defense lawyers for Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane rested without calling any witnesses on Friday in Kane’s trial on charges of obstruction and perjury.
Kane told Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy she had decided not to testify after listening to the state’s case. “I don’t believe it’s necessary for me to testify in my own defense,” Kane said. Philly.com, Pennlive.com and the Morning Call have stories.
Prosecutors allege Kane leaked grand jury documents to the Philadelphia News to take revenge on a rival, former state prosecutor Frank Fina, and then lied about it. Kane’s former political consultant testified on Thursday that Kane hoped to embarrass Fina by exposing his decision to drop a case against a civil rights leader.
Kane had blamed Fina for an article on her decision to drop a corruption probe, said the consultant, Josh Morrow, who was testifying under a grant of immunity. He also said he and Kane had agreed to hide her role in the leak, according to prior stories by the Morning Call and Philly.com. “We had conspired to create this story that wasn’t true,” Morrow testified.
The author of the Daily News article invoked the state’s shield law and refused to testify who gave him the documents used in his story.
Closing arguments will begin Monday.
