The political tempest that has swirled around Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane touched down in a courtroom yesterday, when Kane was questioned about her allegations that a judge leaked sealed documents about the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case, NPR reports. In a private session, Kane said she had no evidence of leaking, says the Philadelphia Inquirer. Kane is under fire from all three branches of her state’s government: the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has suspended her law license, prompting legislators to say she’s unfit for her office; the governor has said she should resign. Kane went from investigating potential lapses in officials’ handling of the Sandusky case to being the subject of a criminal investigation herself.
She has released a trove of emails that she says sparked the case against her, after high-ranking officials were embarrassed by documents that showed they had used official email accounts to trade pornographic and bigoted images and jokes. John Morganelli, the Democratic district attorney in Northampton County, said, “It’s a mess. It’s just a freaking mess.” He later adds: “And it gets worse every day. It’s like going into a war zone.” Northumberland County Judge Barry Feudale called on Gov. Tom Wolf, the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court, the State Ethics Commission and the FBI to remove Kane from office, citing a “legal and institutional nightmare.” The scandal has been linked to six firings, two resignations and 23 reprimands in the attorney general’s office, resignations by the state environmental secretary, his chief attorney and a member of the state parole board, and Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery’s resignation last month.