HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Facing criminal charges, relieved of her law license and threatened with removal by the Legislature, Pennsylvania’s attorney general seems to have decided that if she has to go, she’s going to take others down with her.
Since all three branches of state government began moving against her over the past year, Kathleen Kane has released hundreds of sexually explicit or otherwise crude emails that had been sent or received by current or former public officials on their government accounts.
The tangled scandal has led to the downfall of a state environmental secretary and shamed a state police commissioner, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice and several former top officials in the attorney general’s office. Another high-court justice resigned after newspapers disclosed his involvement.
Kane has threatened to release more, and the state Capitol is ablaze with speculation about whose emails may be next in the drip-drip-drip of disclosures.
“It’s a mess. It’s just a freaking mess,” said John Morganelli, the Northampton County district attorney and a Democrat who at one time supported Kane. “Accusations and counter-accusations. And it gets worse every day. It’s like going into a war zone.”