Updated on August 16 at 2:59 p.m. EST
NEWS BRIEF Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general, resigned from office Tuesday, a day after a jury found her guilty of leaking grand-jury secrets and lying about it under oath.
“I have been honored to serve the people of Pennsylvania and I wish them health and safety in all their days,” Kane said in a statement.
After four and a half hours of deliberation, a jury convicted Kane late Monday of nine criminal charges, including criminal conspiracy and two counts of perjury. Each perjury count, a felony, can carry up to seven years in prison. Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy ordered Kane to surrender her passport and threatened jail time should she seek retaliation against those who testified against her.
Kane was first charged in 2015 when she was accused of orchestrating a leak of confidential grand jury documents in order to circulate a negative story about her political opponent, former state prosecutor Frank Fina. Kane denied the allegations and refused to step down, saying, “A resignation would be an admission of guilt and I’m not guilty.”
Prosecutors claim Kane blamed Fina after believing him to be the source of a story published by the Philadelphia Inquirer accusing her of shutting down an investigation into corruption within Philadelphia’s Democratic Party. They further claim Kane leaked confidential grand-jury information to the Philadelphia Daily News concerning Fina’s handling of an older corruption case in retaliation.
