Porngate: More where that came from

HARRISBURG - Attorney General Kathleen Kane's lawyer said yesterday she expects to disclose new details about a pornographic email scandal as part of her criminal defense, following the release of court documents that suggest she already had the authority to make them public, despite her claims to the contrary.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court took the unusual step of releasing a pair of documents it secretly issued in December - along with a press release - that said a county judge's protective order wasn't intended to prevent Kane from making "appropriate public disclosure" of information connected with the pornographic email scandal. The court documents were issued in a legal challenge, brought by Kane, to the protective order.

Kane was charged earlier this month with perjury, obstruction and other offenses related to her alleged leak of confidential information from a 2009 investigation to a Philadelphia newspaper.

The protective order had been issued in connection with the grand jury investigation that led to the charges against her.

At a news conference last week, Kane blamed her prosecution on her role last year in exposing the porn email that circulated among prosecutors and a judge. She said she was wrongly being prevented from exposing all the participants. She called on courts to give her permission to release all emails.

Kane and her lawyers have known about the two orders in the eight months since they were issued. But her defense attorney, Gerald Shargel, said they were proceeding with caution.