Corbett on Kane inquiry: ‘I didn’t commit any criminal act’

HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett said Friday that he was not worried about the probe the newly elected state attorney general has said she would conduct of his handling of the Jerry Sandusky investigation while he was Pennsylvania's top prosecutor.

Speaking to reporters, the governor said he was not concerned about Kathleen Kane's pending probe because he did not do anything "criminal" when he oversaw the child-sexual-abuse case.

"Anybody can sit down and Monday-morning quarterback decisions," said Corbett. "But for a true investigation, there has to be some criminal act. I know I didn't commit any criminal act. None. Zero."

Corbett then launched into another impassioned defense his handling of the Sandusky probe, saying he never asked anyone to slow it down - nor did anyone ask him to do so - for political or other reasons.

He argued that if he had brought charges against Sandusky while he was running for governor in 2010, it probably would have helped his campaign.

"And then I suspect many of the pundits would have said, 'Oh, he's being political, he should have waited.' So it's kind of darned if you do, darned if you don't," said Corbett. "We didn't delay anything. Go back and look at my career. I've done nothing but go after child predators."

He then added: "This is the first investigation I've ever heard of to look into a successful prosecution. And I think people ought to look at that and say, 'Hmm, is that investigation political in nature?' "

Asked to react to Corbett's comments, Kane spokesman Josh Morrow said Friday in an e-mail that Kane still "doesn't understand why it took the Attorney General's Office 33 months to arrest Jerry Sandusky" and plans to "fulfill her commitment to investigate this matter as promptly as possible."

Kane's campaign for attorney general was in some ways as much against Corbett as it was against her Republican opponent, David Freed.

While running, Kane said she would launch a thorough investigation into how Corbett first handled allegations against Sandusky.

She said she never would have assigned the case to a grand jury, but would have moved swiftly to get Sandusky off the streets.

The governor Friday reiterated that his office believed that bringing a case against a prominent figure like Sandusky with only one witness would have been a big risk.

One witness, he said, "would never have survived alone on the stand."

Corbett also said he did not believe Kane's landslide win was a referendum on him and the public's perception of his time as attorney general or governor.

He said Kane benefited from a flush campaign war chest, as well as the fact that a vote for her was a vote to elect the first woman to head the office.

"That's very helpful," he said.

Corbett said he called Kane after the election to congratulate her, but the two did not discuss her planned probe.

"It was sort of the elephant in the room?" a reporter asked.

"Well, we weren't in the same room," Corbett quipped. "I guess it was hanging on the telephone lines."