Local Government TV

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Bumstead: How Kane Investigation Started

Brad Bumstead, the TribLive reporter who has been all over the Kathleen Kane story, now knows and tells us how it all started. With a letter. Two former state prosecutors requested Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter to launch an investigation into the leak of secret grand jury material. He did, and it led to concussed Kane.

What I find interesting about this letter is that one of the two top prosecutors involved is E. Marc Costanzo. He is the fellow who took down political consultant Tom Severson, here in Northampton County. I watched him in action at Severson's preliminary hearing, in which he laid out a prosecution theory that honed in on a web of deceit - a conspiracy to keep the public in the dark about Severson's involvement in various political campaigns. Severson played on both sides. He wanted to keep his work for Democrats a secret from Republicans, who were paying him huge sums of money.

During a break, he gave me one of those prosecutorial glares that guys like former Lehigh County DA Bill Platt mastered. I immediately pleaded guilty.

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