NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) – The state’s top prosecutor was charged Thursday with leaking secret grand jury information and lying about her actions under oath.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane leaked information to a political operative to pass to the news media “in hopes of embarrassing and harming former state prosecutors she believed, without evidence, made her look bad,” Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said at a news conference announcing the charges.
Kane, the first woman and first Democrat elected attorney general in Pennsylvania, was charged with perjury, obstruction and abuse of office.
A grand jury recommended charges in December in connection with allegations Kane unlawfully leaked information from a 2009 investigation in what witnesses said was an attempt to embarrass critics.
Kane is the second state attorney general to face criminal charges this week. She’s also the second Pennsylvania attorney general charged in the last 20 years.