More on the controversy about flawed corruption investigation of Phil. legislators & attacks on Kane

[JPZenger]

The widespread suspicion is the anonymous source who used the Phila. Inquirer is former Chief Assistant Attorney General Frank Fina.
Fina has been one of the main subjects of AG Kane's investigation of the long-delayed investigation of Sandusky's pedophilia under former AG Corbett. The first thing Kane did when she took office was to confiscate Fina's computer hard drive.

Today, WHYY reported that Kane is limited about what she can say about the case by a top-secret gag order by a judge on the case. Kane had to get a special exception from the judge in order to respond to the Inquirer article. She said she is forbidden from revealing the name of the judge and is forbidden from revealing who asked for the gag order.

There also is controversy about the press coverage about a memo from Fina to the previous Attorney General describing alternatives in the corruption investigation.

" The memo said the investigation began in October 2010, a month before Corbett was elected governor. Investigators amassed 30 recordings through the end of 2010...

“Secrecy has been, and remains, one of the foremost issues and concerns in this matter,” Fina wrote. “One of the primary suspects in this case has significant links to violent elements within the black Muslim community.”

....Adrian King, Kane's first deputy, said Fina's memo “appears to have been improperly taken from the office, and we only obtained a copy by searching a database of more than 20 million deleted emails that were recently recovered. The memo was not in the official case file. The options discussed in the memo were never acted upon in 2012, which further supports our conclusion the case had been abandoned.”

http://triblive.com/news/editorspicks/5801753-74/memo-fina-attorney#ixzz2wdWnVfHw
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This well-informed blogger puts the attacks on Attorney General Kane in clear perspective:

http://casablancapa.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-preemptive-strike.html

Excerpt:

"We at this blog have spent years – years! – documenting clear-cut instances where Tom Corbett failed to prosecute wrongdoing by political allies. York County District Attorney Stan Rebert. Rep. Matt Wright. Rep. James Lynch. State Rep. Mauree Gingrich. State Rep. Eugene McGill. Crawford County Treasurer Fred Wagner. And these are just a few that we know about.

Corbett has not offered a single justification for not prosecuting as cogent as Kane’s plethora of reasons in the Philadelphia case. In fact, we can’t recall Corbett even being asked. But if he had given a reason, we’re sure it would have been accepted at face value.
Perhaps most egregiously, Corbett “cleared” the Senate Republican Caucus - which awarded the largest taxpayer-funded bonuses to staff who worked on campaigns – of wrongdoing without subpoenaing a single witness to appear before the grand jury.

Even a Republican Senator called Corbett’s investigation “a joke” and said his lack of action was politically motivated. Corbett in fact blew off an intern who tried to report illegal campaigning in Sen. Jane Orie’s office, then his spokesman tried to lie about it."

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More at:

http://notpsu.blogspot.com/2014/03/kane-vs-fina-will-excuses-for-foot.html

There are many suspicions that Pina was doing a preemptive strike on Kane's reputation, in preparation for Kane's upcoming release of her office's investigation of the Sandusky investigation.

"... a Legal Intelligencer article from March 2013 in which "anonymous sources" threatened to "go public" if Kane's investigation of the Sandusky investigation were 'overly critical' of their work on the case. The Legal Intelligencer noted that one of its sources formerly held a leadership post in the Office of Attorney General."
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http://bwi.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=36&tid=171924145&mid=171924145&sid=890&style=2

Bucks County Intelligencer article:

Why would the Inky's Corbett-friendly sources malign a conservative Dem legislator from Bucks County? Galloway figures it stems from an opinion piece he wrote for this newspaper questioning why then-AG Corbett seemed to target only Democrats in Harrisburg's infamous 2007 "Bonusgate" corruption scandal. Galloway said Corbett was livid and made a public scene when he confronted the Levittown lawmaker after a House Appropriations Committee meeting.

"Corbett started to explode," Galloway said. "He was this close to my face. 'What do you know? I'm gonna send agents.' I said I don't know anything, I just have an opinion in my local paper."

Later that day, Galloway said two agents came to his Harrisburg office. "One sits here like this, focuses right on me, and he's asking me 'What do you know? Where did you come from? Why did you say what you said?' Another guy starts walking around, looking at my family pictures. 'Is this your daughter? Is this your wife? What does she do for a living?' Picks up papers, intimidating like you wouldn't believe. The idea was to scare the living (expletive) out of anybody who questioned Tom Corbett. That's how things work out there."

[enough]

1. Great post, JPZ. A lot to chew on, here in PA. (nt)

[Mnemosyne]

2. That jackass cannot be gone soon enough. nt