Kansas Attorney General Will Face Abortion Investigation Despite Resignation 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
December 27, 2007
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) — Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison will still face an investigation into allegations that he asked his mistress to send him information about an abortion probe Phill Kline is conducting even though he has decided to resign over embarrassing news that he had sexual relations with a former subordinate. Morrison was also accused of asking the employee to get him documents related to Kline’s case.
Morrison stepped down December 14 after acknowledging the affair be has repeatedly denied claims from his mistress Linda Carter that he asked her to gather information on charges Kline filed against a Kansas City area Planned Parenthood.
The attorney general plans to vacate his office on January 31 but that won’t avert the eyes of Johnson County officials from looking at Carter’s claims.
Kline says he still plans to appoint a special prosecutor next month to weigh the charges of blackmail, telephone harassment and disrupting a county attorney’s investigation.
An AP report Thursday indicated Morrison spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett said her boss wasn’t surprised to learn Kline would proceed and she peddled more claims that Kline is motivated by politics.
"Most Kansans know that anything associated with or initiated by Phill Kline is political motivated," she told AP. "Phill Kline has a terrible track record."
Kline spokesman Brian Burgess said Thursday that his office is "obliged to appoint a special prosecutor," according to a Topeka Capital-Journal article.
Kline had already indicated he would appoint a special prosecutor but there was some question about whether he would commit to doing so following Morrison’s resignation. Previously, the Johnson County Commission voted 6-1 to authorize Kline to spend $25,000 on a legal counsel to investigate Morrison’s possible criminal activity.
Mary Kay Culp, the head of the state pro-life group Kansans for Life, previously told LifeNews.com that she welcomes the resignation and said Morrison had disgraced the office.
"We deeply grieve the pain that the Morrison family has endured. Unfortunately, we also grieve the justice denied when one industry is treated as above the law and unwilling to submit to even the most basic oversight," she said.
Culp told LifeNews.com that Morrison put the interests of the abortion industry ahead of public accountability when late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller spent $1 million to put Morrison in office.
"If the public feels deceived, it is because they were in fact purposely deceived by a million dollar campaign carried out by an abortion industry intent on avoiding even the most basic of scrutiny, at all costs," Culp said.
Culp added that she hopes the newly appointed special prosecutor in Johnson County will "get to the bottom" of whether or not Morrison had Carter tamper with county attorney Phill Kline’s investigation into the Planned Parenthood in Overland Park.
With Morrison’s resignation, pro-abortion Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, will appoint his successor.
Related web sites:
Kansans for Life – https://www.kfl.org
