FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2015
CONTACT: GENE STILP
717-829-5600
THIS IS A HISTORIC DAY FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT IN PENNSYLVANIA AS
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERALS ARE FINALLY CALLED TO TESTIFY
After months of delay, the Senate Special Committee on Direct Address is finding out how easy it is to actually be responsible legislators. Good government can be easy.
And today is one of the most important days in recent legislative history, because the key witness who can answer the most important questions about Kathleen Kane’s viability to remain as attorney general have finally been called to testify before a legislative hearing under oath. One hundred and four days after the indictment the correct witnesses are finally in place.
A few days after Kathleen Kane’s original indictment on August 6, I called on Governor Wolf to start the constitutional process of direct removal by asking the Senate to apply Article VI, Section 7. I filed the first Supreme Court Disciplinary Board complaint that day.
A Senate committee could have started the process at that point.
When the Supreme Court Accepted the Disciplinary Board’s Petition on August 28, 2015 and suspended Kathleen Kane from the practice of law on September 21, 2015, the Senate could have started at that point.
In frustration on October 20, 2015 I filed the Supreme Court Petition asking the court to force the Senate and Governor to use the Article VI, section 7 constitution direct removal process to remove Kane.
Final on October 23, 2015, there was no longer a need for the Supreme Court suit against the Senate and Governor because the Senate said that they would start the process on October 26, 2015 by appointing a committee to study the removal process as it applies to Kathleen Kane and issue a report by November 25, 2015 with their recommendations to the Senate. They have had two hearing and after one hundred and three days got a Legislative Reference Bureau opinion on Article VI, Section 7 confirming that the history of the Pennsylvania Constitution affirms their legal direction.
But today is the historic day for good government. They have finally reached beyond Kathleen Kane’s control and are bringing in the key witnesses.
Today’s witnesses, the four top Deputy Attorney Generals will testify that Kathleen Kane is unable to discharge the duties of the office as specified by law, that Kathleen Kane has not provided clear lines of demarcation between legal and non-legal duties, that Kathleen Kane is jeopardizing the legal prosecutions that the OAG is involved in, that Kathleen Kane to their knowledge is outside the restriction imposed on her by Rule 217 of the Disciplinary Code, that Kathleen Kane is actually jeopardizing their own law licenses, and that Kathleen Kane is beyond supervision as an employee of the Office of Attorney General.
It has taken a hundred and four days to get to today’s very historic hearing, but it is worth it. Finally and possibly, we will see good government in action on this historic day.