For months now, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has been the center of the state's biggest political scandal. Allegations of misconduct in her office have repeatedly surfaced, resulting in ten criminal charges and her suspended law license. There have been incessant calls for her resignation coming from both parties.
But Kane hasn't backed down quietly. She refuses to resign and has spent months now firing back at other state officials, releasing emails and documents that display rampant misogyny, racism, and other misbehavior.
Now, things have gotten more personal than ever. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Kane, who has castigated prosecutors, judges, and others for exchanging offensive emails, failed to disclose that her twin sister - a top prosecutor on her staff - sent and received emails that mocked African Americans and Asians, joked about domestic abuse, and included photos of scantily clad men and women.
Kane made public her sister's emails late Wednesday after coming under pressure from a Philadelphia prosecutor, who asserted that Kane's sister had sent or received 58 troubling emails - and Kane herself had received 11.
Kane stated that her sister's emails do not warrant action, and that her office reviewed her sister’s emails last year and found "no pornographic or offensive emails." But, according to the Inquirer, Kane has "disciplined more than 60 members of her staff, including seven prosecutors, for exchanging offensive digital messages," many containing jokes and comments similar to the ones her sister received. According to the Inquirer:
One included a photograph of a smiling woman with a black eye and a bruised lip, with the caption: "Domestic violence - because sometimes, you have to tell her more than once."
Another was a picture of a black toddler wearing gold jewelry and clutching $100 bills.
A "joke" about illegal immigrants, saying "millions . . . come in" but "only one bastard actually works!"
While the [Ellen] Granahan [Goffer] emails contained no pornography, several included racy pictures of men and women. One showed a naked man and joked about the size of his penis.
This is not good news for Kane, who has been extremely critical of such behavior. She has released hundreds of emails from various elected officials that sent or received messages with similar content.
She has said the emails, exchanged on state computers and captured on her office servers, reveal a criminal justice system marred by biases and threatened by too-cozy relationships.
Kane has spent months assailing what she has called "a network" of prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, and others who for years shared "misogynistic and racist" emails.
So far, the scandal has cost the jobs of more than a half-dozen people, including a Supreme Court justice who quickly retired once he was linked to pornographic emails. Another justice, J. Michael Eakin, is facing misconduct charges in connection with his emails.
Kane has not, however, released all the emails, nor has she made public all the people involved, except for the few that she has disciplined. Some, including Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, have called for her to release all the emails in her possession.
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