Pa. attorney general: Kathleen Kane-related legal bills 'extraordinary'

HARRISBURG – Calling the amounts "extraordinary," Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Wednesday that the legal matters involving his predecessor, Kathleen G. Kane, have cost the office $3.6 million.

"It was really one of the first questions I asked, which is: What did all of that drama cost?" Shapiro said during a budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The total includes paying the law firm BuckleySandler $1.8 million for an investigation commissioned by Kane of exchanges of pornographic emails, as well as $877,000 in legal fees to defend the office from employee lawsuits, Shapiro said.

"People get sued all the time, and there's legal fees associated with that," he said.

"This is an extraordinary amount and completely incomparable to anything we could find from the Corbett, Kelly years, or even before that," referring to Kane predecessors Tom Corbett and Linda L. Kelly.

The office also spent $791,000 on settlements and $191,000 on representing employees at the Kane trial, the attorney general said.

Kane, the first woman and first Democrat elected Pennsylvania attorney general, was convicted in August 2016, of perjury, obstruction, and other crimes.

The Montgomery County district attorney said Kane orchestrated a leak of grand jury documents in an attempt to damage a foe.

In October 2016, Kane was sentenced to 10 to 23 months in jail.