Impeachment Proceedings Begin For Kathleen Kane

HARRISBURG, PA -- Impeachment proceedings against embattled Attorney General Kathleen Kane will begin, as the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted 170 to 12 to begin the process on Wednesday.

The vote had bipartisan support to authorize a House Judiciary Committee investigation into Kane’s actions to determine if she should be impeached from office.

It came the same day that the Senate failed to remove her using an archaic motion known as “direct address,” which was last used in 1891. The Senate vote did not receive the two thirds majority it needed, as only 29 senators supported the measure, while 19 opposed it.

Kane has been at the epicenter of a lengthy drama between her and the Republican establishment in Pennsylvania for over a year.

In August, charges were formally brought against Kane, a Democrat, by Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, a Republican who alleged that Kane had leaked information to a grand jury and then lied about it.

She was charged with obstruction of the administration of law, official oppression, conspiracy, false swearing, and perjury, among other charges. Kane’s driver, Patrick Rocco Reese, was also charged for allegedly helping her steal the files.

A grand jury panel, led by Special Prosecutor Thomas Carluccio, found in December of 2014 that Kane should be charged with everything that she was charged with in August. Carluccio did not advance the charges but sent the panel’s conclusions to Ferman.

The panel said Kane allegedly illegally released grand jury documents to the Philadelphia Daily News in March 2014 regarding a 2009 investigation by prosecutor Frank Fina, and later lied about it.

Fina was investigating J. Whyatt Mondesire, the former head of the Philadelphia branch of the NAACP. No charges were brought against Modeshire.

Carluccio’s panel alleged that Kane gave the information about the investigation to the press in order to embarrass Fina and show that he did a poor job.

Kane allegedly blamed Fina for a story run by The Inquirer claiming that she illicitly shut down an inquiry into Philadelphia Democrats accepting cash from an undercover informant.

Fina was a prosecutor for the Republican attorney generals that held the position before Kane.

The battle between the parties continued to unfold through the end of 2015, as Kane published dozens of emails exchanged by high ranking state Republican officials, containing raunchy, pornographic material.

Through it all, Kane has vigorously maintained her innocence and has continued working as a Attorney General. Wednesday vote is the first successful measure by the House to stop that.

In a memorandum written in November and attached to the resolution voted on Wednesday, Representative Garth Everett (R-84) said criminal proceedings were ongoing and he wanted to respect them, but that the House had a mandate to “fulfill our constitutional oversight responsibility.”

“In 1993, the House of Representatives authorized the House Judiciary Committee to conduct an investigation into whether then-Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen should be liable for impeachment,” Everett said. “During the investigation, the opportunity was made for the presentation of both incriminating and exculpatory evidence to the committee, so that a reasoned decision could be made concerning whether to recommend the impeachment process go forward.”

A separate bipartisan investigation into Kane is currently ongoing in the state Senate, which is hoping to determine whether the suspension of Kane’s law license is sufficient enough to remove her from office.