NORRISTOWN >> The recent search of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s Harrisburg office turned up what Montgomery County prosecutors likely consider the smoking gun of their investigation into Kane’s alleged lies to an investigative grand jury.
Among the items seized was an alleged ‘secrecy oath’ signed by Kane on her second day in office, promising her secrecy for statewide investigating grand juries one through 32, according to court documents filed Thursday which charged Kane with additional counts of perjury, false swearing and obstructing justice.
The oath compelled Kane to maintain the secrecy of all matters occurring before past and present statewide grand juries, prosecutors alleged.
“In addition, Montgomery County detectives recovered notary records from the attorney general’s office proving that defendant Kane signed this ‘secrecy oath’ along with similar secrecy oaths for all then-current investigating grand juries on Jan. 17, 2013,” Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman alleged.
The filing of new charges means Kane, a 49-year-old Democrat, will have to be arraigned and have a new preliminary hearing before District Court Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar of Lower Providence.
Kane was expected to appear at Rebar’s office to be arraigned on the new charges at 4:30 p.m.
The alleged new evidence was obtained when county detectives searched Kane’s office on Sept. 17, after learning about the Jan. 17, 2013, meeting at which Kane allegedly signed secrecy oaths, according to court papers.
Authorities alleged Kane made false statements when she appeared before the 35th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury on Nov. 17, 2014, in an effort to cover up her alleged illegal leak of confidential investigative material from the 2009 Investigating Grand Jury No. 29.
“During the defendant’s grand jury testimony, and in multiple other venues, the defendant claimed she had never been sworn to secrecy before any historical, or older, inactive grand jury,” county Detective Paul Michael Bradbury alleged in the latest criminal complaint.
Because prosecutors did not, as of August 2015, have direct evidence that Kane had been sworn to secrecy regarding the older grand jury, the new allegation was not included in the charges initially filed against Kane, court papers indicate.
The discovery of the alleged secrecy oaths prompted Thursday’s new charges.
“Notwithstanding the clear fact that the defendant was sworn to secrecy before every past and current grand jury on her second day in office, this defendant repeatedly told the grand jury that she was never sworn to protect secret information gathered through the 2009 grand jury investigation…,” Bradbury alleged.
“The defendant told these lies knowing she had signed grand jury secrecy oaths for Statewide Investigative Grand Juries Numbers One through Thirty-Five,” Bradbury alleged.
Furthermore, prosecutors alleged, Kane perpetuated her lies about never being sworn to secrecy for Grand Jury No. 29 to the state Supreme Court and to the citizens “through her privately retained representatives speaking on her behalf in court filings and to the public directly in statements made to the press.”
The investigation of Kane’s alleged conduct has garnered statewide and even nationwide attention since 2014.
On Aug. 6, county prosecutors charged Kane with perjury, obstructing administration of law, abuse of office and false swearing in connection with an investigation that revealed Kane allegedly orchestrated the illegal disclosure of confidential investigative information and secret grand jury information to the media and then engaged in acts designed to conceal and cover up her alleged conduct.
Kane was ordered to stand trial on all the charges after a preliminary hearing before Rebar on Aug. 24. Kane’s next court appearance had been scheduled for Oct. 14 for her formal arraignment on the initial charges.
Specifically, with those initial charges, prosecutors alleged Kane released secret information about a 2009 Investigating Grand Jury No. 29 to a reporter at The Philadelphia Daily News in order to retaliate against a former state prosecutor, Frank Fina, with whom she was feuding and who she believed provided information to The Philadelphia Inquirer to embarrass her regarding a sting operation he was in charge of and which she shut down. Kane also was accused of lying to the 35th statewide grand jury in 2014 to cover up her alleged leaks.
The embattled attorney general claimed she did nothing wrong and has implied the charges are part of an effort to force her out of office because she discovered pornographic emails being exchanged between state employees on state email addresses.
In the wake of the allegations, Gov. Tom Wolf, also a Democrat, called for Kane to resign, which she refused. Last week, the state Supreme Court placed a temporary suspension on Kane’s license to practice.
In a statement, Kane said she was disappointed in the high court’s ruling but added she is pleased the order did not remove her from office. Kane continued to maintain her innocence and vowed to keep fighting to clear her name while serving out the remainder of her term. Kane is up for re-election in 2016.