Email Scandal Ensnares Dozens of AG Staffers

Kathleen Kane. AP Photo | Bradley C. Bower

Harrisburg’s racy email scandal helped spark the retirement of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice and cost several other high-ranking state officials their jobs. It probably didn’t help outgoing Gov. Tom Corbett keep his position, either. But it’s not just the men in the bright lights who exchanged the explicit messages: Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office has now let it be known that 8 percent of her agency’s employees have been disciplined for participating in the email swap.

 The Patriot-News reports:

Kane spokesman Renee Martin said the investigation of the initial email threads uncovered this year showed participation by 61 current employees at all levels in the agency, and in some cases right up through this summer, when the emails’ existence was confirmed through media Right To Know Law requests.

Of those disciplined, Wednesday’s report stated six have been terminated; two resigned in advance of receiving discipline; and 11 have been suspended without pay with the ability to return.

The suspensions ran from three to 10 days, Martin said.

The remaining 42, Martin said, have been given a formal written reprimand, required to take sexual harassment counseling, or both.

Discipline was reportedly meted out based on a combination of the employee’s rank within the department and the amount of email they traded, along with the emails’ content. “I am determined to put an end to this behavior,” Kane said in a statement.