Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline is totally cool with lying to state agencies to get what he wants. Kline's vendetta against two clinics is on trial in a state ethics hearing that could lead to the Sunflower State's former top cop being stripped of his law license, which is already suspended because Kline didn't pay a $50 renewal fee.
I'd pay $50 for this whole thing to just go away. We're a couple of years removed from Kline's defeat in his re-election bid for Johnson County District Attorney, and I just can't find the energy to care about Kline anymore. It's over. We know he pulled some shady shit. Let's just be happy he's off teaching impressionable young minds at the Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
But since this news cycle is being stubbornly boring, here's what this ethics hearing is about. Via the Associated Press:
No one needs a refresher on where Kline stands on abortion. His investigation from 2003 to 2009 (part of which he served as Johnson County District Attorney) was by any means necessary. His defense: That's what happens in criminal investigations. So misleading the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services was no biggie to him. They were potential witnesses, he claims.The complaint alleges that Kline and his subordinates misled other
officials and mishandled patients' medical records in building criminal
cases against the late Dr. George Tiller of Wichita and a Planned
Parenthood clinic in suburban Kansas City. A three-member panel of the
state Board for the Discipline of Attorneys, which opened the hearing
Monday, will recommend to the Kansas Supreme Court on what sanctions, if
any, Kline should face.
"It was appropriate."
And waiting seven months to tell a judge that his people presented
flawed SRS data to start his "inquisition"? He pleaded ignorance.
"Shouldn't you immediately inform the judge?" asked state DisciplinaryOh, you didn't know? You better ask somebody. Kline did say his office informed the judge the next time it wanted a subpoena and the court didn't toss the case.Administrator Stanton Hazlett.
Kline replied: "I don't know if that duty exists."
"We just have a difference of opinion about the duties of a prosecutor,"The case Kline put together against abortion provider George Tiller was eventually tossed out. (Tiller was later murdered while attending a church service.) The case against a Planned Parenthood clinic in Johnson County is still pending, with the clinic denying 107 charges of performing illegal abortions and falsifying records.Kline told Hazlett.
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