PA AG Kane is mad, threatening to sue the Inquirer (Dem bribes)

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State Attorney General Kathleen Kane has hired one of the most feared litigators in the region, Richard A. Sprague, to represent her in possible defamation suits arising from accounts of her decision to end an undercover investigation that taped at least five Philadelphia Democrats accepting cash or gifts.

Sprague said he would launch an investigation into the conduct of the prosecutors who ran that sting operation, which began in 2010 before Kane took office. She has said the case was mismanaged, possibly tainted by racial profiling, and far too weak for any prosecutions.

Kane arrived at a Thursday morning meeting with Inquirer editors and reporters, flanked by a pair of lawyers, Sprague and his son, Thomas A. Sprague. The meeting began on an unusual note when the elder Sprague announced that Kane was his client - and that she would not speak.
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Editor William K. Marimow defended the newspaper's treatment of the story.

"The Inquirer's coverage of the sting investigation has been meticulously and carefully reported," Marimow said.

"Our lead reporters, Angela Couloumbis and Craig McCoy, have interviewed many people with in-depth knowledge of the investigation, including members of Attorney General Kane's staff, in order to ensure that the stories are accurate, thorough, and fair," Marimow said. "These stories are the product of months of diligent and dogged reporting - not a leak from a person with a political agenda."

He added, "In my opinion, this is precisely the kind of issue that requires public scrutiny, specifically the conduct of public officials who accepted cash or gifts from an undercover agent and the quality of a three-year investigation launched and ended by a state law enforcement agency."

Sprague said that Kane had retained him Wednesday, after the editorial board meeting had been set.

He did not accuse anyone by name of seeking to harm the attorney general's reputation, but the reference was clear.

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