Special prosecutor subpoenas reporters who said grand jury recommended charges against state AG
A special prosecutor investigating Pennsylvania’s attorney general has subpoenaed two reporters for the Philadelphia Inquirer to appear before a grand jury in Norristown.
The subpoenas seek to find out the names of the unidentified sources relied on by Craig McCoy and Angela Couloumbis in reporting that a grand jury had recommended criminal charges against AG Kathleen Kane, the Philadelphia Inquirer says.
The Inquirer plans to invoke a state shield law protecting reporters from disclosing confidential sources.
“The confidential sources who provided guidance to the Inquirer in these stories about public officials in their official duties are precisely those whom the Pennsylvania Shield Law was designed to protect from disclosure,” said newspaper editor William Marimow.
Kane has denied any wrongdoing, and one of her lawyers said at a Saturday news conference that “angry men” are pursuing a political vendetta against her.
Attorney Lanny Davis said Kane, who was elected as a Democrat in 2012, has been targeted because of her investigation of the delay in prosecuting now-convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky under her Republican predecessor, the Allentown Morning Call reports.
The state attorney general at the time, Tom Corbett, is now the governor of Pennsylvania and has stayed out of the fray, the newspaper reports.
However, Frank Fina, who was in charge of the AG’s public corruption unit during Corbett’s time as AG, had roles in both the Sandusky probe and the grand jury investigation of Kane, and he and Kane have repeatedly clashed, according to the Morning Call.
Related coverage:
Patriot-News: “Rep. Marsico: Alleged charges against AG Kathleen Kane ‘serious and alarming’ but impeachment talk is premature”
Philadelphia: “Kathleen Kane Has Been Awful. But She’s Being Treated Unfairly.”
Politics PA: “Kane vs. Fina: An Intense Personal and Political Feud Erupts”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Delay in Sandusky charges was ‘within acceptable bounds of prosecutorial discretion,’ report says”
