Judge To Decide Whether Kathleen Kane Will Face Perjury Trial

HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug 24 (Reuters) - Prosecutors on Monday will lay out the details of their criminal case against Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who is accused of illegally leaking grand jury information to embarrass a political foe, and then lying about it.

She faces a charge of perjury, as well as three counts of obstruction of justice, four counts of official oppression, and one count of false swearing. Magisterial District Judge Cathleen Rebar will decide if the prosecution has presented enough evidence to send the case for a full trial in Common Pleas Court.

Kane, 49, has resisted widespread calls for her resignation, including from Governor Tom Wolf, a fellow Democrat. She says she is innocent and has accused her enemies of prosecuting her to hide their involvement in a pornographic e-mail scandal that rocked the state last fall.

According to the grand jury presentment against her, Kane illegally leaked grand jury information to embarrass Frank Fina, who had been Chief Deputy Attorney General under the previous governor, Republican Tom Corbett, and who led the investigation and prosecution of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on child sex charges.

Kane blamed Fina for a March 16, 2014, article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that said she shut down an investigation of corrupt black Democratic legislators in Philadelphia that had been led by Fina.

In retaliation, the grand jury document says, she put out documents that appeared to show Fina had dropped the ball on an investigation of alleged misuse of grant monies by a Philadelphia official of the NAACP.

The perjury charge stems from what the grand jury document describes as a number of false statements Kane made in regard to the leaked documents when she appeared before a grand jury. (Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Lambert)