Kathleen Kane

HARRISBURG — A top state prosecutor is raising questions about Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s hiring of outside lawyers to investigate a government e-mail scandal and said a judge is looking into whether secrecy laws were broken when Kane’s office gave hundreds of thousands of e-mails to the lawyers.

The revelations came in a letter released Thursday by a state senator and were promptly disputed by Kane allies. However, the letter appears to reveal a growing rift between Kane and top lawyers in her office as she fights criminal charges, the suspension of her law license and her potential removal from office by the state Senate.

In the letter to Republican state Sen. Lisa Baker, First Deputy Attorney General Bruce Beemer said the October suspension of the Democrat’s law license by the state Supreme Court should have prevented her from appointing a special prosecutor to lead the probe.

Beemer wrote that neither he nor any member of the legal staff he supervises was consulted before Kane announced Dec. 1 that she had appointed former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, a Democrat, to lead a team of lawyers at his law firm in the investigation. His letter, dated Wednesday, was responding to a list of 24 questions asked by Baker last week.

Further, Beemer wrote that Gansler cannot be appointed to be a special prosecutor or employee of Kane’s office. Doing so, according to Beemer’s letter, would violate state conflict of interest laws that are applicable because the office has already approved a contract with the BuckleySandler firm, where Gansler is a partner.

A Kane spokesman, Chuck Ardo, said Thursday the attorney general maintains she had the authority to appoint Gansler. In an interview Thursday, Gansler accused Beemer of trying to mislead lawmakers and block the investigation.

“For whatever reason it is, Beemer and his guys don’t want us to conduct this independent investigation,” Gansler said.

Gansler also disagreed with Beemer over his employment status, saying his responsibilities began Dec. 1. He said his appointment, including the authority to pursue criminal charges, and pay rate are consistent with the Pennsylvania Independent Counsel Authorization Act, which expired in 2003.

Conflict of interest laws don’t apply in this case, Gansler said, because he was appointed separately from his law firm’s hiring.

Kane announced the investigation into the e-mails amid the growing scandal that began to unfold in late 2014.

After taking office in 2013, lawyers in Kane’s office discovered hundreds of e-mails containing pornographic images and videos or jokes involving misogyny or racial stereotypes had been exchanged for years by prosecutors, agents, judges and other government officials on state computers.

As the e-mails have slowly dribbled out from Kane’s office or other channels, the scandal has claimed the jobs of several government officials and prompted a state Supreme Court justice to resign. A second state Supreme Court justice is suspended and facing misconduct charges.

Since Dec. 1, BuckleySandler lawyers have received hundreds of thousands of e-mails to review, which Beemer suggested could violate secrecy laws.