Corbett wants a ticket to the peep-show

GOV. CORBETT, after weeks of saying he has heard about but not seen "inappropriate" emails sent or received by top deputies when he was state Attorney General, now wants to take a good look.

Corbett has asked for copies of the sexually explicit emails that Attorney General Kathleen Kane revealed to reporters Thursday, and more.

Kelly Powell Logan, Corbett's secretary for the Office of Administration, wrote to Kane at the "express request of Gov. Corbett" asking for the emails, citing media descriptions of them.

"These reports and your accompanying public statements have necessitated a review of these documents by this office," Logan wrote, asking Kane to "immediately provide me with complete copies of all the subject emails to allow a complete and thorough review of those items."

Kane's spokeswoman, Renee George Martin, said that an agent went to Logan's office yesterday with a laptop computer to show her the same images reporters saw on Thursday. Kane's staff is "working on a definitive list of information [Corbett] would like us to provide," Martin added.

Reporters saw pictures and videos of men and women having sex; women inserting unusual objects, like a bowling pin and a lit cigar, into their vaginas; parody motivational posters suggesting that women sexually please bosses to advance their careers; and at least one video from TeenSex101.com.

Logan's letter said that she wants the complete collection of emails, not just the small selection that Kane chose to show reporters. She also wants details, such as whether the recipients opened, forwarded or deleted the emails.

Five of the former Corbett deputies connected to the emails went on to top-tier state jobs after he became governor in 2010.

They include: State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Chris Abruzzo, former Secretary of Legislative Affairs Chris Carusone, former Press Secretary Kevin Harley (now an adviser to Corbett's re-election campaign) and Glenn Parno, who oversees oil and gas regulation for DEP.

Kane also included emails from the archived in-boxes of Patrick Blessington, who now works for Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams; Randy Feathers, appointed in 2012 by Corbett to the state Board of Probation and Parole; and Richard Sheetz Jr., who now works for the Lancaster District Attorney's Office.

Kane's selective release of emails this week amounted to a nakedly political peep-show. It was a continuation of a tit-for-tat political fight she has been having with Corbett and some of his former deputies since she ran for office in 2012.

Kane often questioned Corbett's investigation of the child sex-abuse case that sent former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky to prison.

The emails were discovered after she was elected, as her staff reviewed the Sandusky case.

Reporters have been filing public-records requests seeking the emails for weeks, as rumors spread about their content.

Corbett earlier this month told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he had no knowledge of the emails, then changed his story a few days later to say that he had been told of "inappropriate" emails in May but didn't know much about them.

Corbett may now be asking for something Kane can't give him.

Martin told reporters Thursday "there are restrictions - upon which we cannot elaborate - which currently prohibit us from revealing the names of some other people who participated in this [email] activity."

Cambria County Common Pleas Judge Norman Krumenacker III, who supervises a statewide grand jury, for three weeks banned Kane from releasing the emails after another former Corbett deputy, Frank Fina, filed for a protective order.

Krumenacker lifted that order last week.

Fina now works for the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge William Carpenter, who also oversees a statewide grand jury, also may have ordered Kane to keep some of the names on the emails secret.

Martin yesterday said that Kane would accommodate Corbett's request for the emails "within the boundaries of the law."

Corbett's communications director, Lynn Lawson, yesterday said that the governor is in the process of reaching out to his former top deputies to see what they have to say about the emails.

The high-profile names attached to the emails could not have come as a surprise to Corbett's staff this week, since the Daily News has been asking about the emails and citing those names for more than two weeks.

Lawson said that a request for information from the Daily News was "not fact-based enough for [Corbett] to take any action or reach out to these individuals."

The issue turned even more political yesterday when former DEP Secretary Katie McGinty, who now heads a political-action committee trying to help Democrat Tom Wolf defeat Corbett's bid for a second term in the Nov. 4 general election, called on the governor to hold his former deputies "accountable immediately."