As the hearings into bogus ethics charges filed against former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline went into their second day, news surfaced showing a report exonerating Kline and his abortion probe of Planned Parenthood had been concealed for months.
The Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper indicated the state’s disciplinary board for lawyers concealed for 20 months an internal investigation it conducted revealing no probable cause existed to justify ethics complaints against Kline related to his criminal inquiries into Planned Parenthood and the late, late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller.
Kline told the newspaper the document would have been helpful during his unsuccessful August 2008 election campaign for Johnson County district attorney — the position he sought following his term as state Attorney General. He said it would have helped him effectively counter pro-abortion claims over the last few years that he overstepped his boundaries as a prosecutor in obtaining evidence showing Planned Parenthood and Tiller were breaking the law.
Kline also wondered why disciplinary administrator Stanton Hazlett is pressing ahead with an ethics case against him when the report found there was no probable cause to do so. He also said Hazlett should have informed him of the document.
“I believe so,” Kline said, “It’s common practice to share. He’s not applying the rules to himself the way he’s applying them to me.”
Leading pro-life advocates have come to Kline’s defense and Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, is the latest to do so.
“This week, a man will be put on trial for demanding that health clinics protect women. Meanwhile, the organization responsible for the abuse isn’t anywhere near a courtroom–and is, at this very moment, enjoying millions in taxpayer dollars,” he said.
“Long before Live Action had undercover videos or Congress took Planned Parenthood to task, former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline was a one-man crusader, fighting to hold the abortion giant accountable. During his time as a state prosecutor, Phill had enough evidence of illegal late-term abortions to bring criminal charges against Planned Parenthood,” Perkins explained. “His case was partially shelved, thanks to the heavy influence of then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius and her pro-abortion justices.”
He said abortion advocates in Kansas “have launched a massive civil suit aimed at disbarring, discrediting, and eventually, bankrupting Phill. A three-judge panel is grilling Kline for “ethics violations,” in hopes of humiliating the law professor, even though the court’s own disciplinary administrator conceded that they are only pursuing Phill because of his pro-life beliefs.”
Tom Brejcha of the Thomas Moore Society has also come to Kline’s aide.
“Stanton Hazlett continues to question Phill Kline on charges that have been reviewed and dismissed on multiple occasions. Kline has been cleared of any wrongdoing by two independent lawyers hired by Hazlett and the Kansas Disciplinary Administrator’s Office after an 18 month investigation. Three judges who reviewed Kline’s evidence of Planned Parenthood’s illegal activity ruled that the evidence was solid and the criminal case should go forward,” he said.
Brejcha continued: “Realizing that his case is floundering after yesterday’s questioning of Mr. Kline, today Mr. Hazlett tried to bring forward “new” charges that were rejected by the ethics panel, once again demonstrating that Mr. Hazlett is on a political witch-hunt on behalf of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.”
Yesterday, Kline told the hearing that a Kansas Planned Parenthood abortion center and late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller ignored 164 instances when girls 13-years-old and younger had abortions at one of those abortion clinics, and the clinics failed to report the abortions to authorities.
