Prosecutors assail AG Kane's bid to drop charges

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office on Monday assailed Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane's latest bid to dismiss the criminal case against her, calling frivolous and irrelevant her claim that she is the victim of a selective and vindictive prosecution.

In a court filing, prosecutors asked a judge to reject Kane's argument, which they called "yet another chapter in her wearied feud" with former state investigators who they say have no influence on the current case.

Kane faces an August trial on perjury and other charges after allegedly leaking secret grand jury information to a Daily News reporter and later lying about it under oath. She has pleaded not guilty.

Her lawyers claimed last week that the investigation was an attempt by her political foes, former ranking attorneys in her office, to stop her from releasing embarrassing information about them - including their exchange of racist and pornographic emails on state computers.

But prosecutors said the argument is irrelevant because the men she claims spurred the investigation - former state prosecutors Frank G. Fina and E. Marc Costanzo - are not involved in the prosecution. After an investigative grand jury completed its work, a team of investigators from the Montgomery and Bucks Counties' District Attorneys' Offices conducted their own probe and will try the case.

Kane "alleges a grand conspiracy orchestrated by two prosecutors, who are not even prosecuting her," said the filing from Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele's office. "Regardless of the underpinnings of the statewide investigating grand jury, the independent investigation of this office revealed that she, the elected attorney general of Pennsylvania, made multiple false statements under oath while testifying in front of the grand jury."

Prosecutors also disputed Kane's argument that leak investigations are rare if not "extraordinary," citing other such cases - including some from Lackawanna County while Kane worked there.

Reached Monday, Kane's defense lawyer Gerald Shargel called the prosecutors' reply "fair and strong." He said he intends to file a response. Kane, a Democrat, is not seeking a second term in office. Her seat is up for election in November.