HARRISBURG — The state office that investigates misconduct by lawyers argued Wednesday Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane waited too long to object to Justice Michael Eakin’s participation with four other justices in suspending her law license last fall.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel argued in an 18-page response that the justices should deny Kane’s request to lift her suspension over Eakin’s role, and noted the decision by the five justices at the time was unanimous.

“Justice Eakin neither cast the deciding vote nor authored the final order,” wrote Disciplinary Counsel Harriet Brumberg. “To the extent that this court finds that Justice Eakin should not have participated in the consideration of (the) petition, Justice Eakin’s participation was `mere surplusage.”’

Kane’s lawyers have argued that Eakin, a Republican, should have recused himself because of his involvement in an e-mail scandal involving government officials that first became public last year. Kane’s lawyer, Jim Mundy, said Wednesday she only has to demonstrate the appearance of impropriety in Eakin’s vote that put her on temporary, indefinite suspension.

The high court voted in September to suspend Kane, six weeks after she was charged with perjury and other criminal violations for allegedly leaking secret grand jury material and lying about it under oath.

Shortly afterward, Kane, a Democrat, submitted hundreds of e-mails to the courts and ethics agencies that she said showed Eakin used a state computer to exchange racially offensive messages and misogynistic pornography with friends using a private e-mail account.