After a legal fight with investigative journalism outfit Spotlight PA, the Governor’s office was forced to release unredacted documents showing not just which private law firms were hired by the administration of former Governor Tom Wolf with taxpayer dollars, but the reasons why.
Ex-Gov. Tom Wolf’s office and top lawyers for Gov. Josh Shapiro have furiously fought to keep this information secret. https://t.co/FFpHUljY1E
— Spotlight PA (@SpotlightPA) January 8, 2025
During an undisclosed grand jury investigation, high-ranking staff for the Governor was represented by the law firm Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel as Wolf’s first Chief of Staff, Katie McGinty was called as a witness. Obermayer was also hired twice, once in 2018 and again in 2021, to represent unidentified witnesses in a federal investigation.
Additionally, the same law firm represented Wolf’s deputy chief of staff Yesenia Bane in an investigation conducted by the State Ethics Commission over whether Bane used her position to enrich her husband, a lobbyist for the gas industry. The commission closed the investigation without referring it to prosecutors, saying there was “insufficient evidence.”
Around the same time, the Federal Bureau of Investigations was exploring whether there was any corruption or illegal activity in relation to the approval of a natural gas pipeline approval. Particularly, the FBI was investigating the possibility of Wolf administration officials pressuring state employees to approve construction permits for the Mariner East pipeline.
In yet another unidentified grand jury investigation, another of Wolf’s chiefs of staff, Mary Isenhour, was represented in 2019 by outside counsel paid for with taxpayer funds. Another private practice was hired for a three-year span beginning in 2019 to assist in a “matter of Department of Justice.”
The revelation capped a multi-year legal battle between Spotlight PA, the Wolf administration, and eventually the Shapiro administration.
