Over the past 15 months, beleaguered Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has released a steady stream of messages retrieved from a state email server that show state officials and employees trading pornographic, racist and misogynistic messages. (Wash Post)
There are jokes about rape and sexual assault, photos mocking African Americans and other minorities, and insults leveled at people because of their weight, their sexual orientation or their religion. At least two state Supreme Court justices and numerous officials in the office of the attorney general have been caught in the scandal that has been dubbed “Porngate.”
A small sampling: A photo of a pantsless woman on her knees performing oral sex on a man is captioned “Making your boss happy is your only job.” A picture of a white man fending off two African American men while carrying a bucket of fried chicken reads “BRAVERY At Its Finest.” The sender of the email that shows a group of men engaged in sex included this message to friends, “How friggin gay are you?”
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Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane has appointed the former top law enforcement officer in Maryland to head a wide-ranging investigation into the chain of pornographic emails exchanged among state prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officials on government computers. (Philly com)
Standing at a dais inside the National Constitution Center, Kane said Douglas Gansler, Maryland's former attorney general, would lead a team of lawyers from his Washington firm to review the emails and decide whether those who circulated them broke any laws.
In carrying out his investigation, Gansler will have "the sword of prosecutorial powers," Kane said, including issuing subpoenas, inspecting confidential documents, and bringing criminal charges.
She said there were "thousands" of offensive emails, a sampling of which she displayed on a Jumbotron before she spoke. The images, she said, exposed a "constitutional crisis" in state government, because they ridicule and demean women, minorities, gays, and lesbians, and reveal a justice system laden with biases.
There are jokes about rape and sexual assault, photos mocking African Americans and other minorities, and insults leveled at people because of their weight, their sexual orientation or their religion. At least two state Supreme Court justices and numerous officials in the office of the attorney general have been caught in the scandal that has been dubbed “Porngate.”
A small sampling: A photo of a pantsless woman on her knees performing oral sex on a man is captioned “Making your boss happy is your only job.” A picture of a white man fending off two African American men while carrying a bucket of fried chicken reads “BRAVERY At Its Finest.” The sender of the email that shows a group of men engaged in sex included this message to friends, “How friggin gay are you?”
_____________________________
Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane has appointed the former top law enforcement officer in Maryland to head a wide-ranging investigation into the chain of pornographic emails exchanged among state prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officials on government computers. (Philly com)
Standing at a dais inside the National Constitution Center, Kane said Douglas Gansler, Maryland's former attorney general, would lead a team of lawyers from his Washington firm to review the emails and decide whether those who circulated them broke any laws.
In carrying out his investigation, Gansler will have "the sword of prosecutorial powers," Kane said, including issuing subpoenas, inspecting confidential documents, and bringing criminal charges.
She said there were "thousands" of offensive emails, a sampling of which she displayed on a Jumbotron before she spoke. The images, she said, exposed a "constitutional crisis" in state government, because they ridicule and demean women, minorities, gays, and lesbians, and reveal a justice system laden with biases.