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Is anyone else having a déjà vu moment over the prosecution of state Attorney General Kathleen Kane? Remember former Luzerne County Judge Ann Lokuta?
I don’t necessarily think Kane is innocent of the perjury, obstruction and related charges she faces. But this situation seems strangely familiar to the driving forces behind Lokuta’s brutal downfall.
Lokuta was the first woman elected to the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. Kane is the first female and first Democratic state Attorney General. Both women were powerful, and both had equally powerful enemies.
And Lokuta, like Kane, was a threat to influential men in the judiciary and law enforcement. In Lokuta’s case, she had the goods on corrupt former county judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella. She was aware of their involvement in the now infamous “Kids for Cash” corruption scandal before it broke, and they wanted her gone.
As for Kane, her office discovered pornographic and racially sensitive emails circulating among law enforcement officials and at least one judge. Those who received and/or sent them have not been identified. Kane says she wants to release the emails but has not yet done so.
Lokuta, albeit no Miss Congeniality, was described as running her courtroom with an iron fist, sometimes belittling those before her, including lawyers. She allegedly forced her staff members to clean her house.
Seizing on those actions, the powers that be, including Conahan and his chums on the state Judicial Conduct Board, went gunning for her.
That board’s chief prosecutor Frank J. Puskas called Lokuta’s behavior “a cancer.” She fought back as hard as she could, but in the end after serving on the bench for 18 years, Lokuta lost both her job and her pension.
Lokuta, like Kane, was not pure as the driven snow. But any fair-minded person would have to agree her punishment did not fit the crime.
Unlike Lokuta, though, Kane is charged with serious crimes, including a felony, and she is the state’s chief law enforcement officer. There are calls, including one from Gov. Tom Wolf, for her to resign. There is talk about impeachment.
Resignation? Impeachment? What about innocent until proven guilty?
Why are there no fervent demands for the resignation of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah, who was recently indicted on racketeering charges? Federal prosecutors have charged the 11-term congressman with bribery, fraud, money laundering and other crimes. They also say he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A poster child for term limits, Fattah used charitable donations and federal grants to repay a wealthy donor’s illegal $1 million campaign loan and to pay down his son’s student loan debt, prosecutors allege. A defiant Fattah said he will not resign while he fights the charges. However, this model of morality did step down from his leadership post as the top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees spending for Commerce and Justice, the Associated Press reported. He oversaw spending on Justice? That’s a good one.
Calling Gov. Wolf. Demand Fattah’s resignation, as well because his alleged crimes are worse than Kane’s.
The AG’s preliminary hearing is set for Monday. In her much-anticipated press conference last week to address the charges, she claimed she has been a target ever since she began investigating Pornogate.
Not long after she took office, she went after then Republican Gov. Tom Corbett with a vengeance, challenging the length of time he took investigating the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case.
Corbett’s former special assistant Dennis Roddy wrote in a guest column for this newspaper said, “Dazzling in martyr’s white, Kathleen Kane took the stage midweek to offer up the kind of defense Joan of Arc might have launched after dropping acid.” Seriously, Mr. Roddy? He also said, “At virtually every turn, Kane has done a hippopotamus stomp across the truth, always at the expense of her own stature and that of her office.”
Hippopotamus? Classy.
Kane’s lawyer Ross M. Kramer said we haven’t heard half of what she has to share in her defense. “As time goes on, a great deal more will come to light,” he told a local reporter. Of that, we have no doubt.
The charges against the attorney general stem from leaks in a grand jury investigation. She is accused of lying under oath about tipping off a reporter, through an operative, to confidential information against a former chief prosecutor she considered a political enemy.
Kane claims she can still do her job despite the serious charges hanging over her head. Others don’t see it that way.
The bottom line is if Kane is ordered to resign or is temporarily stripped of her law license, making it impossible for her to serve, Congressman Chaka Fattah should likewise be forced out of office. He holds one of the highest positions in the land. Someone charged with bribery and money laundering should not be allowed to vote on our country’s nuclear deal with Iran and other critical issues while fighting for his own political future.
Or are only female elected officials presumed guilty before their trials begin and must be punished before a verdict is rendered?
