Porn Email Firings Continue in Scandal-Plagued Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—There are two competing headlines today about Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane. The first is about the announcement from her office that there have been more firings and other sanctions related to emails containing porn that were exchanged by various government officials and at least one state Supreme Court justice (now retired), and the other is about the fact that Kane was in a somewhat suspicious car accident 10 days ago that kept her from testifying before a grand jury the morning of the accident, the second time she would fail to appear to testify, and has not returned to work since the accident. At least one local columnist is now referencing the accident in calling for her head. Other articles note the inconsistencies related not only to the accident itself, but to why it took 10 days for the AG's office to report the accident. It is now being reported that she has been cleared to return to work Nov. 24. Layered over that brewing scandal is the never-ending fallout from the porn emails, with Kane’s office announcing yesterday that an internal investigation of itself had uncovered 61 current employees who have participated in the porn email exchanges to one extent or another. According to Philly.com, the announcement also stated that “four employees have been fired while ‘termination is pending for two union employees until the exhaustion of their contractually mandated rights.’ “Two more resigned before discipline was delivered and 11 employees were suspended without pay,” the site continued. “Employees found to have a ‘very limited’ role in the emails received written reprimands.” The announcement included a statement from Kane indicating that she is “determined to put an end to this behavior,” but there are also plenty of observers suggesting that “personal and political rivalries” are really at the core of what’s going on. If that is actually so, the fallout from the feud—which may include Tom Corbett’s job as governor of the state, and certainly includes Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery’s job, as well as a growing list of lesser state officials—may be one for the record books.