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Public Complaint Targets Kane’s Law License

AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane arrives to be processed and arraigned on charges she leaked secret grand jury material and then lied about it under oath, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2015, at the Montgomery County detective bureau in Norristown, Pa.

An activist is petitioning the state’s high court to suspend state Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s law license.

Dauphin County resident Gene Stilp filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Disciplinary Board in light of criminal charges filed against the attorney general last week.

Kane faces a felony count of perjury and other charges. She would not be able to continue in her position if her law license were suspended.  

“There are more important things than wasting our time on a attorney general who’s been indicted,” said Stilp, who said he came out of “activist retirement” to file the complaint.

“Someone’s got to do it,” Stilp said.

But it’s possible that someone else already did.  

Complaints submitted to the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board are kept confidential unless they result in a law license suspension. Before that happens, Kane would have an opportunity to respond. Her spokesman said she would present a vigorous defense.

Prosecutors who charged Kane last week allege that she shared details of a secret grand jury investigation with a reporter in order to get back at her critics. Charging documents allege that Kane later lied about the ordeal while under oath before a different grand jury investigating her.

Kane has said she’s innocent and will fight the charges without resigning from office. Gov. Tom Wolf has called on her to step down. The Republican leader of the state House has hinted that the Legislature may move to have her impeached if she does not resign.

The attorney general plans to hold a Wednesday press conference to take reporters’ questions for the first time since charges were filed last week.