Corbett may have misused prosecutorial discretion for political purposes. It is now well known that powerful western Pennsylvania State Senator Jane Orie had used her taxpayer funded office to campaign for her sister, Joan Orie-Melvin when she ran (successfully) for State Supreme Court. When the case was given to then Attorney General Corbett, he sent it back to the Allegheny County DA. You see, District Attorney Zappala, a registered Democrat, has a long standing family feud with the Orie clan. By refusing to take the case, Corbett made it possible to try to frame it as a personal and partisan witch hunt. One wonders if this was payback for the fundraising and political leverage the (former) State Senator and her family had put at Corbett’s disposal throughout all his statewide campaigns.

The general public began to suspect that something was rotten in the state of Pennsylvania.