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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Senate moved a step closer on Wednesday to potentially removing the state's embattled attorney general from office, while she raised the possibility of criminal charges against others in a slowly unfolding scandal involving public officials exchanging sexually explicit or otherwise offensive emails.
Hours after a state Senate committee said the full chamber should consider moving against Attorney General Kathleen Kane, she announced a team of prosecutors will look into "racist, misogynistic, homophobic and religiously offensive content" of emails on her office's servers.
Kane is running her divided office with a suspended law license and is fighting charges that she leaked secret investigative material to a newspaper and lied under oath about it, allegations she has said were concocted to prevent her from disclosing the email scandal.
The scandal has enveloped two state high court justices and numerous members of law enforcement, and Kane said she was responding to pressure from the public to do something about it. She has gradually revealed details about the emails over the past 14 months.
The Special Committee on Senate Address voted 5-2 to recommend the full Senate start a formal process that could result in a vote to remove Kane.
It made the recommendation in a 21-page report after holding three public hearings this month, including testimony by top lieutenants that Kane's unprecedented lack of an active law license has exposed her office's cases to legal jeopardy.
Kane said any attempt by the Senate to remove her is unconstitutional and vowed to fight it.
"Today, a handful of senators sought to substitute their judgment for that of more than 3 million Pennsylvanians who cast their vote for the duly elected, independent attorney general," Kane wrote in a statement.
Kane, 49, won a landslide victory in 2012, becoming the first Democrat and woman elected as Pennsylvania's attorney general. Her term expires in January 2017.
The Senate panel unanimously rejected Kane's argument that the Senate lacks the authority to remove her. All four of its Republicans voted to pursue an inquiry into Kane's removal; two of the panel's three Democrats voted against it.
Sen. Art Haywood, D-Montgomery, a committee member who opposed the recommendation, said Kane is appropriately delegating responsibilities that require a law license. He said the state Supreme Court, not the Senate, will have to determine if any cases are endangered by her license suspension.
But Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, said the detrimental effect of the license suspension on her office merits consideration of her removal by the full Senate.
The Senate must still vote on whether to start the formal inquiry, which falls under an obscure constitutional provision that has not been used in the modern era. The committee said within 15 days it will give the Senate a proposed resolution to consider that would start the process.
The chamber is controlled by Republicans, 31-19. If it accepts the recommendation, the Senate will conduct a hearing where Kane can defend herself before any vote to remove her. That process could take weeks, and removal will require approval of two-thirds of the chamber, or 34 senators.
The constitutional provision says the governor shall remove officers after the Senate votes for it. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has urged Kane to resign, but she has resisted.
Kane said the special prosecutors will "go through every public email account trafficking this filth and track down every public server over which it was circulated."
She said she will outline the team's powers to identify any crimes, and will ask the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate emails in the public email accounts of federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania.
"There can be no greater duty of an attorney general than to restore the confidence of the public in the integrity and fairness of their judicial system," Kane wrote. "I intend to carry out this duty no matter how hard some in the Pennsylvania Senate seek to prevent me from doing so."
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