Thursday, Mar 20, 2014 By Vince LattanzioPennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has retained legal counsel to represent her in a potential defamation issue involving The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Philadelphia attorney Tom Sprague tells NBC10.com Kane hired him and his father, Dick Sprague, on Wednesday after a series of reports ran in The Inquirer this week regarding the AG's handing of a corruption investigation involving state lawmakers.
Sprague and a source at the Inquirer confirm Kane and the attorneys visited the paper's editorial board on Thursday afternoon
During that meeting, which was scheduled before the attorneys were hired, Dick Sprague informed the editors that he and Kane are concerned about potential defamation issues related to their reporting.
Citing the defamation concerns, the attorney told the editors the attorney general would cease to answer any questions from the Inquirer, Tom Sprague confirmed.
The Inquirer ran a series of reports, the first of which was printed Sunday, questioning why Kane's office decided not to pursue criminal charges against several Democratic state lawmakers from Philadelphia. Kane is also a Democrat from Philadelphia.
That investigation, which began before she took office last year, involved lawmakers allegedly accepting illegal payments.
Kane said she shut down the investigation after her office found serious flaws including possible racial targeting