Pennsylvania Republicans Call On AG Kane To Go
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Republicans in Harrisburg are calling for Attorney General Kathleen Kane to leave office immediately following her conviction on charges of perjury and obstruction.
State Senator John Rafferty, who is also the Republican nominee for Attorney General, told Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, that Kane has violated the public's trust.
"She violated a sacrosanct tenet of that office where you do not, under any circumstance, release grand jury information. I had done some grand jury work when I was there. You cannot do that and then to lie about it and do it in a way that you're just trying to extract a political or personal vendetta against somebody is totally wrong. As chief law enforcement officer and chief lawyer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it is behavior that is not forgivable. It is very discouraging and very dishonorable to that office."
He believes Kane has no business remaining in power after such serious violations.
"This is a matter of doing what's right for Pennsylvania and getting rid of someone who's now been convicted of breaking the law, serious matters, felonies and misdemeanors. We're not talking about summary bumping a car or spitting on the sidewalk. We're talking about felonies and misdemeanors. It's a very serious matter that we as legislators who took the oath of office have to consider going forward."
Rafferty said if she does not leave office immediately, the Senate should remove her.
"I think we're all waiting to hear what she has to say today, see if she'll take the right path for once and say, I'm getting out. If she doesn't, then we have to look at that as the alternative, to go back up and have the Senate convene and consider removal per Article Six, Section Seven of our state Constitution."
State Representative Todd Stephens spoke with Dom Giordano about the plans of Republicans in the House to impeach Kane.
"We have been reviewing and investigating a much broader range of conduct, outside just criminal conduct. The standard for impeachment is misbehavior in office, which includes more than just criminal conduct. I expect to have some subpoenas going out here in short order and then we'll having some hearings and things along those lines in the coming weeks. We are moving forward. Our Majority Leader, Dave Reed, last night, issued a statement calling for her to resign. I guess that's the second time he's done that and I know the Senate Leader's also issued statement calling for her to resign."
He explained they haven't taken any further steps previously in order to avoid disrupting the prosecution's case.
"We've been moving pretty quickly, as quickly as we can. We also did have to be mindful, we certainly didn't want to interfere with the criminal trial. We didn't want to be accused of tainting the jury pool. We certainly didn't want to create any problems with witnesses who were going to testify at the criminal trial and making statements for us that might be on the record that could be used to impeach them."
