In May 2014, a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate an allegation that someone in Kane's office leaked secret grand jury information to the Philadelphia Daily News for a June 6, 2014, article. The article concluded that former state prosecutor Frank G. Fina had mishandled the 2009 investigation of J. Whyatt Mondesire, then head of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), based on information supplied by Kane's office.

Kane acknowledged that her office supplied information to the Daily News, but said she did not approve the release of any material protected by grand jury secrecy laws. She also argued the investigation was based on partisanship.

In December 2014, a grand jury issued a presentment to the supervising judge finding reasonable grounds to believe violations of criminal law had occurred. The judge accepted the presentment, finding probable cause to support the grand jury’s determination and to establish a case against Kane. In response, Kane challenged the legality of appointing the special prosecutor.

In August 2015, the Montgomery County district attorney filed criminal charges against Kane, including perjury, obstruction of justice and contempt of court. Kane was ordered to stand trial. On October 14, 2015, Kane waived her arraignment and pleaded not guilty to all charges. On August 15, 2016, a jury found her guilty on all 12 charges.

In October 2016, Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy sentenced Kane to 10 to 23 months in jail and eight years probation. She was allowed to postpone jail time until the state supreme court decided her case, which was on appeal.

On November 26, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected Kane's appeal, requiring Kane to serve out her sentence.

Kane joined Ernest Preate Jr. as the only attorneys general in Pennsylvania history to face criminal charges.

The disciplinary board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court disbarred Kane on March 22, 2019, effective in April 2019.

Tensions with Gov. Corbett

After being in office for less than a month, Kane appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Gov. Tom Corbett's (R) handling of the high-profile Jerry Sandusky child sexual assault case. Also among her first acts in the position, Kane blocked Corbett's controversial bid to privatize the state lottery. In July 2013, Kane refused to enforce or defend Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage. After Kane's decision, Corbett and many members of the Republican-controlled state legislature accused her of prioritizing her own ideological code instead of state law, leading some legislators to call for her impeachment. Kane ceded the duty of representing the state in Whitewood vs. Corbett, a legal challenge seeking to overturn the 1996 statute defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, to Corbett's office.

Corbett indicated through press statements that he believed her judgment on the statute lacked the substance worthy of the theoretically apolitical office, and he called her sincerity into question. Corbett told reporters he had never seen or heard of an attorney general refusing to participate in the defense of a statute's constitutionality. He implied Kane's decision was a violation of unwritten rules. "It is merely her opinion," stated Corbett, to underline a popular notion among Kane critics that the she was only posturing to climb the political ladder.

Protecting Financial Aid for Students and Taxpayers Act

On March 11, 2013, Kane, together with 12 other state attorneys general, sent a letter to Congress in support of the Protecting Financial Aid for Students and Taxpayers Act, a bill that sought to ban for-profit colleges from using federal funds for marketing and recruiting techniques. Senators Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chaired the chamber's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, sponsored the bill. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) stated that the proposed law aimed to “ensure that scarce federal education dollars will be used to serve and educate students rather than to finance advertising campaigns, recruitment operations, and aggressive marketing.”

In the letter, the attorneys general wrote, “Federal taxpayers should not be asked to foot the bill for aggressive recruiting and deceptive sales tactics of colleges that have placed profits ahead of ensuring student success.” At the time, there were an estimated 3,000 for-profit schools nationwide, though neither the letter nor the bill cited the name of any specific institutions.

On March 12, 2013, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, but no subsequent action was taken and the bill died in committee. On April 23, 2013, a related bill—HR 340—was referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce's subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, but it also died in committee.

Florida Gun Loophole

The attorney general of Pennsylvania was authorized by the General Assembly in 1995 to enter into reciprocity agreements with other states. Kane announced on February 8, 2013, that a loophole within Pennsylvania's concealed-carry reciprocity agreement with Florida had been closed. Commonly referred to as the "Florida Gun Loophole," this technicality allowed a Pennsylvanian who was denied a concealed-carry permit or had his or her in-state permit revoked to obtain an equally valid license from Florida. This agreement was first established in 2001. Kane closed the loophole by negotiating with Florida officials on a new version of the agreement, under which Pennsylvania residents holding Florida-issued permits were required to apply for a Pennsylvania License to Carry Firearm (LCTF). The modified agreement retained "all the same rights and recognition" of licensed Florida residents to carry a firearm in Pennsylvania, but they also had to be able to produce immediate verification of their Florida residency.

As of February 2013, Pennsylvania held agreements with 28 states. This included Florida, where beyond the updated agreement's implementation, Pennsylvania-issued concealed-carry permits continued to be honored.

Gun control

Kane won election as attorney general on a series of campaign promises that included greater focus on enforcement of Pennsylvania's public safety laws. Before she was sworn into office, she collaborated with sitting attorneys general including New York's Eric Schneiderman (D) and California's Kamala D. Harris (D) on a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). The letter urged them to oppose two bills—The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act and The Respecting States’ Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act—which would require states to recognize concealed carry permits issued by any other state. "These bills would create a lowest common denominator approach to public safety that would endanger police and make it more difficult to prosecute gun traffickers," the letter warned. According to Kane, a former Lackawanna prosecutor, closing the "Florida Gun Loophole"—thereby nullifying Florida-issued gun permits for Pennsylvania residents and requiring them to apply for Pennsylvania-issued permits—"shows that it is possible to swiftly implement common sense gun safety measures that protect our streets."

Marijuana

At a conference of the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors in May 2013, Kane said she opposed legalizing marijuana because she believed it leads to harder drug use. “When you don’t get your high from marijuana you’re going to turn to something else. It’s going to be oxycodone and then it’s going to be heroin. It doesn’t stop just at marijuana. I oppose it for criminal justice reasons,” she stated.

Kane was elected Pennsylvania's first Democratic, female attorney general on November 6, 2012. She officially succeeded Linda Kelly (R) on January 15, 2013. Following her conviction on criminal charges including two felony counts of perjury, Kane announced her resignation on August 16, 2016, effective the following day.

A January 2013 article in Governing named Kane as one of the top state Democratic officials to watch in 2013. A Huffington Post article published November 17, 2014, also identified Kane as one of seven Democratic state executive officials who could gain national prominence. She also attracted support from progressive groups for her refusal to defend the state's ban on same-sex marriage and the state's lawsuit against a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil.

Grand jury investigation and criminal charges

In May 2014, a special prosecutor was appointed to investigate an allegation that someone in Kane's office leaked secret grand jury information to the Philadelphia Daily News for a June 6, 2014, article. The article concluded that former state prosecutor Frank G. Fina had mishandled the 2009 investigation of J. Whyatt Mondesire, then head of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), based on information supplied by Kane's office.

Kane acknowledged that her office supplied information to the Daily News, but said she did not approve the release of any material protected by grand jury secrecy laws. She also argued the investigation was based on partisanship.

In December 2014, a grand jury issued a presentment to the supervising judge finding reasonable grounds to believe violations of criminal law had occurred. The judge accepted the presentment, finding probable cause to support the grand jury’s determination and to establish a case against Kane. In response, Kane challenged the legality of appointing the special prosecutor.

In August 2015, the Montgomery County district attorney filed criminal charges against Kane, including perjury, obstruction of justice and contempt of court. Kane was ordered to stand trial. On October 14, 2015, Kane waived her arraignment and pleaded not guilty to all charges. On August 15, 2016, a jury found her guilty on all 12 charges.

In October 2016, Montgomery County Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy sentenced Kane to 10 to 23 months in jail and eight years probation. She was allowed to postpone jail time until the state supreme court decided her case, which was on appeal.

On November 26, 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected Kane's appeal, requiring Kane to serve out her sentence.

Kane joined Ernest Preate Jr. as the only attorneys general in Pennsylvania history to face criminal charges.

The disciplinary board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court disbarred Kane on March 22, 2019, effective in April 2019.

Tensions with Gov. Corbett

After being in office for less than a month, Kane appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Gov. Tom Corbett's (R) handling of the high-profile Jerry Sandusky child sexual assault case. Also among her first acts in the position, Kane blocked Corbett's controversial bid to privatize the state lottery. In July 2013, Kane refused to enforce or defend Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage. After Kane's decision, Corbett and many members of the Republican-controlled state legislature accused her of prioritizing her own ideological code instead of state law, leading some legislators to call for her impeachment. Kane ceded the duty of representing the state in Whitewood vs. Corbett, a legal challenge seeking to overturn the 1996 statute defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, to Corbett's office.

Corbett indicated through press statements that he believed her judgment on the statute lacked the substance worthy of the theoretically apolitical office, and he called her sincerity into question. Corbett told reporters he had never seen or heard of an attorney general refusing to participate in the defense of a statute's constitutionality. He implied Kane's decision was a violation of unwritten rules. "It is merely her opinion," stated Corbett, to underline a popular notion among Kane critics that the she was only posturing to climb the political ladder.

Protecting Financial Aid for Students and Taxpayers Act

On March 11, 2013, Kane, together with 12 other state attorneys general, sent a letter to Congress in support of the Protecting Financial Aid for Students and Taxpayers Act, a bill that sought to ban for-profit colleges from using federal funds for marketing and recruiting techniques. Senators Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chaired the chamber's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, sponsored the bill. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) stated that the proposed law aimed to “ensure that scarce federal education dollars will be used to serve and educate students rather than to finance advertising campaigns, recruitment operations, and aggressive marketing.”

In the letter, the attorneys general wrote, “Federal taxpayers should not be asked to foot the bill for aggressive recruiting and deceptive sales tactics of colleges that have placed profits ahead of ensuring student success.” At the time, there were an estimated 3,000 for-profit schools nationwide, though neither the letter nor the bill cited the name of any specific institutions.

On March 12, 2013, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, but no subsequent action was taken and the bill died in committee. On April 23, 2013, a related bill—HR 340—was referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce's subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, but it also died in committee.

Florida Gun Loophole

The attorney general of Pennsylvania was authorized by the General Assembly in 1995 to enter into reciprocity agreements with other states. Kane announced on February 8, 2013, that a loophole within Pennsylvania's concealed-carry reciprocity agreement with Florida had been closed. Commonly referred to as the "Florida Gun Loophole," this technicality allowed a Pennsylvanian who was denied a concealed-carry permit or had his or her in-state permit revoked to obtain an equally valid license from Florida. This agreement was first established in 2001. Kane closed the loophole by negotiating with Florida officials on a new version of the agreement, under which Pennsylvania residents holding Florida-issued permits were required to apply for a Pennsylvania License to Carry Firearm (LCTF). The modified agreement retained "all the same rights and recognition" of licensed Florida residents to carry a firearm in Pennsylvania, but they also had to be able to produce immediate verification of their Florida residency.

As of February 2013, Pennsylvania held agreements with 28 states. This included Florida, where beyond the updated agreement's implementation, Pennsylvania-issued concealed-carry permits continued to be honored.

Gun control

Kane won election as attorney general on a series of campaign promises that included greater focus on enforcement of Pennsylvania's public safety laws. Before she was sworn into office, she collaborated with sitting attorneys general including New York's Eric Schneiderman (D) and California's Kamala D. Harris (D) on a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). The letter urged them to oppose two bills—The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act and The Respecting States’ Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act—which would require states to recognize concealed carry permits issued by any other state. "These bills would create a lowest common denominator approach to public safety that would endanger police and make it more difficult to prosecute gun traffickers," the letter warned. According to Kane, a former Lackawanna prosecutor, closing the "Florida Gun Loophole"—thereby nullifying Florida-issued gun permits for Pennsylvania residents and requiring them to apply for Pennsylvania-issued permits—"shows that it is possible to swiftly implement common sense gun safety measures that protect our streets."

Marijuana

At a conference of the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors in May 2013, Kane said she opposed legalizing marijuana because she believed it leads to harder drug use. “When you don’t get your high from marijuana you’re going to turn to something else. It’s going to be oxycodone and then it’s going to be heroin. It doesn’t stop just at marijuana. I oppose it for criminal justice reasons,” she stated.