Pennsylvania Attorney General, Chief Justice Reach Porn Deal
Pennsylvania’s porn email scandal drags on. On Wednesday, the office of Attorney General Kathleen Kane said she and Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille reached a deal over porn emails. She will turn over the names of judges or judicial employees who had exchanged sexually explicit emails on state accounts.
She won’t, however, give the messages to Castille. She’ll allow him to view the emails and pornographic content, but will only give him copies of the emails “without explicit content,” per the Inquirer. It’s unclear why Kane won’t share the porn with Castille. Does she think he’ll, in turn, start forwarding around these messages again?
To be fair, a judge is involved in this scandal: Judge Seamus McCaffery (of Eagles Court fame) reportedly sent at least 10 messages from a personal email account to the state account of someone in the Attorney General’s office. (“I just wonder why a half dozen private emails, allegedly from Justice McCaffery’s personal computer, are front page news,” a spokesman for the judge said in a statement.)
“At this point, it might be harder to find a government computer in Harrisburg that hasn’t been used to view or transmit porn,” the Daily News Chris Brennan writes.
Castille will get a “personal review” of the emails Friday. Kane’s office isn’t going to share the emails with the public, leaving that decision up to Castille. The Supreme Court chief justice has said previously employees sending pornographic emails while at work could face some form of discipline.
Meanwhile, two more people named in the porn email scandal have resigned. Rick Sheetz, who worked in the state attorney general’s office under Tom Corbett, quit his job as an assistant district attorney in Lancaster County. Chris Carusone, another former state prosecutor, quit his job at the private law firm Conrad O’Brien to start his own firm. What better time to start a new firm when your name’s in the news!
[Inquirer | Patriot-News | AP | Daily News]