AG Kathleen Kane Faces Trial on Additional Perjury Charge

Kathleen Kane will face trial on charges she perjured herself before a grand jury last year, a judge ruled today.

At a preliminary hearing today, Montgomery County Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar ruled charges of perjury, false swearing and obstruction could move forward. Those charges, which include felony perjury, stem from an investigation into grand jury leaks — and are in addition to previous leak-related charges in which Kane had already been ordered to face trial.

In this particular case, prosecutors allege Kane lied before a grand jury when testifying about the leak of material from a separate grand jury in 2009.

Kane testified on November 17th of last year that she never signed a secrecy order for grand juries held before she was sworn in as attorney general in January 2013. Montco detective Paul Bradbury testified today he found such an order during a sweep of Kane’s office in September.

Gerald Shargel, Kane’s attorney, said she simply forgot about signing it.

“Did she have an obligation to tell the truth? Absolutely,” Shargel told reporters outside the courtroom. “I don’t have to look to anything further than common sense: Of course she was obligated to tell the truth. When she went into the grand jury and gave her testimony in November of 2014… her intention as she stated, clearly and unequivocally and categorically, was to go in there and tell the truth — to tell the truth to the best of her knowledge and ability, that’s all any of us can do. And she did that. Period.”

Kane will be formally arraigned on January 6th. In addition to this felony perjury charge, Kane also faces obstruction of administration of law or other governmental function, official oppression, criminal conspiracy, perjury and false swearing charges in a separate action.

Kane is also facing a subpoena from a Pennsylvania Senate panel that is investigating whether she can perform the job of attorney general despite having her law license suspended.