More finger-pointing as feds probe D.A.

ONE WEEK. If we could just go one week without a local politician becoming the focus of a cringe-worthy controversy . . .

In the meantime, we welcome District Attorney Seth Williams to the ever-growing club of elected officials who have either been indicted or named as the target of a grand jury investigation.

For Williams, it's the latter. Federal investigators are probing his finances to determine if he improperly spent campaign funds, a law enforcement source told the Daily News yesterday.

The grand jury investigation into Williams was first reported by the Inquirer. The newspaper, citing sources, described the case as a joint investigation between the FBI and the IRS that has already led to a subpoena being filed for records belonging to the Friends of Seth Williams, the D.A.'s political action committee.

Some expenditures might raise more eyebrows than others - like the $2,175 that a campaign-finance report shows was spent last year on membership and storage dues at the Sporting Club at the Bellevue.

Williams yesterday referred all questions to his spokesman Cameron Kline, who did not respond to requests for comment.

But the Friends of Seth Williams did speak out, emailing a statement that not-so-subtly suggested state Attorney General Kathleen Kane had a hand in Williams' current woes - or at least in those woes becoming public. Kane's spokesman scoffed at the idea.

Wondering why Williams would be pointing an accusatory finger at Kane, a fellow Democrat? Let's rewind for a second.

Kane, you might recall, was charged earlier this month by Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman with perjury and criminal conspiracy for lying about spearheading an effort to embarrass her political enemies. Kane and her driver, Patrick Rocco Reese, were accused of leaking information last year to then-Daily News reporter Chris Brennan about a 2009 grand jury investigation into J. Whyatt Mondesire, the former head of the Philadelphia NAACP. (Kane is scheduled to face a preliminary hearing in Montgomery County on Monday.)

Frank Fina, a prosecutor who worked on that case for the Attorney General's Office, butted heads with Kane and eventually went to work for Williams in Philadelphia.

Kane allegedly leaked the information about the Mondesire case because she blamed Fina for an inflammatory story that appeared in the Inquirer about her decision to not press charges against six local lawmakers who accepted bribes from lobbyist Tyron Ali as part of a sting operation.

Williams and Kane took jabs at each other through the media while separately discussing the Ali case. Williams ultimately took the case - on what amounted to a triple-dog-dare from Kane - and his office successfully prosecuted it.

All caught up? Good.

The Friends of Seth Williams noted yesterday that Ferman's investigation found Kane had at one point vowed "to make Seth pay" as attention on the Ali case grew.

"Today . . . an article was published by the same reporter to whom Kane provided secret grand jury information in an apparent effort to smear other prosecutors," the committee's statement read in part.

"The article relies on anonymous 'sources' to raise allegations against District Attorney Williams related to his campaign finances.

"District Attorney Williams denies these allegations. His campaign records are a matter of public record, and he will cooperate with any authorities who may wish to review them."

Kane's spokesman, Chuck Ardo, said she had nothing to do with this latest controversy.

"Neither the attorney general nor the Attorney General's Office would have any way of knowing whether or not there was a federal investigation ongoing," he said.

"And she certainly had no role in exposing it to the media."

Ardo said he wasn't surprised that Williams' camp had suggested Kane was somehow to blame for the D.A.'s predicament, "given the climate surrounding the allegations against the attorney general."

Williams, who is in his second term as district attorney, has been mentioned in some circles as a possible candidate to replace U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah. The 11-term congressman was hit with a 29-count federal indictment last month on racketeering and conspiracy charges.