(CN) - A former first deputy to Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane told jurors on Wednesday that his one-time boss dismissed his concerns about grand jury documents that had been leaked to the press, telling him it "was no big deal."
The testimony by Bruce Beemer, the state's former first deputy attorney general, kicked off day two of Kane's trial on perjury, obstruction and other charges related to the leak that prosecutors say was intended to settle a political score.
Beemer, who served under Kane from 2014 until just last month said he was shocked to read an article in the Philadelphia Daily News in June 2014 that quoted secret grand jury documents that had clearly come from the attorney general's office.
Beemer said he called Kane immediately upon finishing the article, and asked her if she's read it.
"This is a problem," he said he told her. "It's clear that they got this information directly out of our office."
He said he them asked for permission to look into the leak.
"She said, 'Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. We have more important things to do," Beemer recalled Kane saying before ending the call.
Asked what he thought of Kane's response to his concerns, Beemer told a crowded Montgomery County courtroom, "I don't think anyone can stop the attorney general from doing what she wanted to do."
The article in question focused on a grand jury investigation led by Frank Fina, a former chief deputy attorney general, who was investigating allegations of corruption against J. Whyatt Mondesire, an NAACP leader in Philadelphia.
The investigation was eventually dropped, and the article is said to have highly critical of Fina for an alleged pattern of non-prosecution by his office.
Fina, who had also led the investigation into child sex abuse allegations against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, had been a frequent target of Kane during her election campaign.
She claimed he was part of a "good old boy" network that simply wanted the charges against Sandusky to disappear.
After Kane took office, Fina departed for another job, but before he left, an article critical of the new attorney general appeared in local papers.
Prosecutors claim Kane leaked the material about Fina to the Daily News reporter because she believed he was the source of the uncomplimentary article and was bent on revenge.
On Tuesday, prosecutors tried to show that Kane, who has consistently maintained she's done nothing wrong, had made contradictory and flat-out false statements about the leak.
Among these was Kane's assertion, read from a transcript from the investigation into her actions, that she released the material to the newspaper herself because her press office had been "dismantled."
On Wednesday, prosecutors sought to impeach this claim, by reading jurors an email Beemer received at the time from Renne Martin, who was then acting communications director for the attorney general's office.
In the email she asked Beemer to read the article and to provide her with guidance on how to address it.
Beemer said even after speaking with Kane, he believed the leak was "a real problem." He said short of getting to the bottom of the leak, he wasn't sure how to proceed.
The prosecution's final witness of the day Peifer, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Special Forces for the attorney general. In August 2015, Peifer was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony.
