Credit: State of PA
As the attorney general of Pennsylvania, Kathleen Kane was the state’s highest-ranking law enforcement official. But as of April 21, she’s no longer permitted to practice law at all.
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Convicted on perjury charges in August 2016, Kane was disbarred Friday by the state Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board. The order of disbarment released by the court indicates that she consented to the ruling.
Kane’s law license was suspended in 2015, and she stepped down as attorney general in 2016 following her conviction. The Scranton Democrat began serving her 10-to-23-month prison term in November 2018.
Her fall from being the first Democrat and first woman elected as Pennsylvania’s attorney general to prison inmate stemmed from accusations that she leaked the details of grand jury proceedings and then lied to cover up her actions. The former Lackawanna County prosecutor was elected to the statewide office in 2012.
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Kane attracted controversy both as a county prosecutor and as attorney general due to a perceived reluctance to prosecute her fellow Democrats. According to media reports, Kane suspected that a former state prosecutor had leaked grand jury testimony seeking to embarrass her for closing down a corruption investigation, so Kane in turn leaked documents to the media intended to turn the spotlight back on the prosecutor.
In the course of digging up dirt on her rival, Kane discovered a cache of explicit emails sent between numerous legal professionals in the state, including two former Supreme Court justices. Many of the emails ultimately were published in a scandal that became known as “Porngate.”
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Kane attempted to appeal her conviction, arguing among other things that she should have been able to present the pornographic emails at her trial to prove that there was bias against her among the Montgomery County judiciary, but the state’s Superior Court denied the appeal.
