Pa. House Expected To Begin Impeachment Investigation Against AG Kane

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Not convicted of anything yet, the state House of Representatives is likely to instruct its Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Attorney General Kathleen Kane is liable for impeachment.

Kane goes on trial Aug. 8 on two felony perjury charges that she lied about leaking secret grand jury material.

In a statement to KDKA, Kane said the House action is premature since she has not yet had her day in court, noting, "The proposed House action is both unwarranted and ill timed....The attempt to remove the elected Attorney General prior to the conclusion of the legal process runs contrary to the well-established norms."

But Duquesne Law School's criminal law professor Joseph Mistick says it's not unusual to start the process before a criminal conviction.

"It's normal to start the process, to get in place in case you need it before there's been a conviction," Mistick told KDKA political editor Jon Delano.

In 1994, Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen was impeached six months after his conviction by a trial jury.

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The state Senate is also considering an alternative way to remove Kane, last attempted in 1891, that would allow the governor to remove Kane on two-thirds vote of the Senate.

Kane calls this process unconstitutional, and Mistick questions it, too.

"If the attorney general were to be removed using this dubious process, she would probably immediately file an appeal based on due process and equal protection in federal court," says Mistick.

While all this goes on, Kane says she's running for reelection.

While a candidate must be a member of the bar, and Kane still is, her law license has been suspended.

So can she run?

"No one knows what the answer to that is until it is fully tested," says Mistick.