Attorney General Kathleen Kane: Charges Tied To Porn Emails

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) —Pennsylvania's attorney general said Wednesday that criminal charges threatening to end her career were part of a "grand plan" to conceal pornographic and racially insensitive emails that state prosecutors and judges circulated among themselves.

"I am innocent of any wrongdoing," Kathleen Kane said in her first public comments on the case. "I neither conspired with anyone nor did I ask or direct anyone to do anything improper or unlawful."

A suburban Philadelphia district attorney charged Kane last week with leaking grand jury information to a newspaper reporter in an attempt to embarrass a former prosecutor she believed made her look bad, and then lying about her actions under oath.

Kane, 49, described the leak investigation and criminal charges as a "stealth political weapon" to oust her from office and block her from challenging a judge's order that she said bars the release of a collection of undisclosed pornographic, racially and religiously offensive emails sent on state computers.

Kane said the campaign to discredit her began immediately after her office uncovered pornographic and explicit videos, images and jokes in hundreds of emails while examining how state prosecutors under her predecessors handled the child sex abuse case against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Kane said the email scandal, which surfaced last summer, resulted in six firings, 23 reprimands and two high-profile resignations: state Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery, who abruptly left office after his involvement was revealed, and a former environmental protection secretary who worked in the attorney general's office when the emails circulated.

She said Wednesday that far more people are involved than previously disclosed and called on the judge supervising the leak investigation grand jury, William Carpenter, to authorize the release of the additional emails.

She also called on Carpenter to release transcripts, emails and other documents related to the protective order she said he signed to prevent the release of those emails and to give her immunity from potential charges of witness tampering that could come with their disclosure.

"Today I'm calling for the whole story to come out," Kane said.

Kane has said she has no plans to quit her post or take a leave. She left the news conference after reading her prepared statement and declined to take questions, citing grand jury secrecy laws.

Kane told reporters she will hold another news conference with her lawyers and answer all questions once Carpenter complies with her requests.

No one answered the phone Wednesday at Carpenter's chambers. The Montgomery County prosecutors who brought the charges against Kane did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Kane won office in 2012, the first woman and first Democrat to be elected attorney general. She also is the highest-ranking woman in Pennsylvania state government.

Kane portrayed herself in the past as a political target for taking on what she described as a corrupt, old-boy law enforcement network and exposing state employees who exchanged pornographic emails.

In the statement Wednesday in which she alleged a scheme to punish her, Kane told reporters she was taking a different tack: "My defense will not be that I am the victim of some old-boys' network. It will be that I broke no laws of the Commonwealth. Period."

A growing number of Democratic officials, including Gov. Tom Wolf, have called on her to step down. Her critics worry the charges have damaged the office's credibility and her legal battle will distract her from the responsibilities of her positon.

Kane had answers for them, too, citing 135 child predator arrests, 645 drug arrests and a $2.4 million settlement with an electric supplier that had overcharged customers in the nine months since a grand jury first recommended charges against her.

A citizen's complaint filed with the state Supreme Court's Disciplinary Board may also set in motion a suspension of Kane's law license that could force her out of office.

Kane, in her statement, asked the disciplinary board to halt any action until Carpenter authorizes her to release the trove of emails.

Prosecutors have also accused Kane of instructing some of her staff to monitor employee emails as the grand jury was wrapping up its investigation of her in late 2014.

Patrick Reese, a former police chief who is Kane's driver and head of her security detail, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a contempt charge involving allegations he violated a judge's protective order by accessing emails in a state computer system to keep tabs on the grand jury investigation for his boss.

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