On Wednesday, that collection was released to the public.
Monday’s hearing was the latest chapter in the saga of Frank Fina and Kathleen Kane, which has all the pettiness and backstabbing that one expects from a good state-politics feud. Kane declined in 2014 to prosecute Democratic Pennsylvania lawmakers accused of taking bribes in a sting case Fina put together, with Kane implying that Fina was motivated by racism to target Black Caucus members. After Fina fought to have the case reopened, several legislators were later convicted, and Kane suspected Fina of working with the Philadelphia Inquirer on the paper’s unflattering accounts of Kane’s involvement in the case.
In retaliation, prosecutors say, Kane revealed to the Philadelphia Daily News details of grand jury proceedings in a 2009 case led by Fina. The current charges against Kane include “official oppression” stemming from the damage done to the reputation of Jerome Mondesire, head of the Philadelphia NAACP and the subject of the grand jury investigation, which ended without an indictment.
But Kane’s attorneys argue that if she really had wanted to smear her colleague, she would have told everyone about Fina’s massive porn collection. Which of course she had just done.
“The attorney general knew full well that Mr. Fina had a pornography collection of thousands and thousands of images, inappropriate statements, misogynist points of view and disgraceful content,” said Kane’s attorney Gerald Shargel in the middle of the hearing.
The emails in question were first discovered when state Attorney General Kathleen Kane launched a probe into the state’s investigation of pedophile Jerry Sandusky, to see whether or not the investigation had been properly carried out. In the process, Kane and her team uncovered hordes of emails with pornographic photos attached, including “motivational posters” reading “Take advantage of every opening,” obviously depicting anal sex, and other, similarly graphic attachments — some of which were racially insensitive and all-around off-putting.
“I will not let them discredit me or our office,” Kane emailed an advisor according to court documents. “This is war.”
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