Beleaguered Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is facing mounting legal and political pressure to resign from office.  “Pressure to resign” is actually a bit of an understatement.  Kane is facing a criminal trial in Montgomery County for allegedly leaking confidential Grand Jury material to local newspapers in order to attack a political rival.  On top of that, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has suspended her law license, and a Special Committee appointment by the State Senate has recommended that the legislature initiate potential impeachment proceedings.  But it is becoming increasingly clear that Kane does not intend to go down without a fight. And it could be a very long, very messy and very embarrassing fight for a number of elite government officials.

Only one week ago, a “Special Committee” appointed by the State Senate reported that it did not believe Kane could or should continue in her role as Attorney General.  The report was seen as the first step in initiating impeachment proceedings in the Senate. But today Kane threw a heavy counter-punch, hiring independent counsel to conduct an investigation  of her own into offensive and arguably pornographic emails allegedly exchanged by high-level State officials, including prosecutors and Supreme Court Justices.  Ostensibly, Kane appointed independent counsel to investigate and issue a report on potential crimes committed by individuals sending these offensive emails on government computers.  But the subtext is clear – her political enemies may succeed in forcing her out of office, but she is not going down quietly or alone.  Kane is going on the offensive.

During the press conference today, the Attorney General’s Office announced that it has appointment former Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to conduct an independent investigation into the offensive emails. Gansler’s task is to determine if any crimes were committed in connection with these emails and make a recommendation as to whether individuals involved should be prosecuted.

Significantly, Gansler will not just be reviewing emails currently in the possession of the Attorney General.  He has been given authority to seek additional emails and has the ability to subpoena additional records.  The fact that Gansler has been tasked with expanding the scope of the investigation and has authority to issue subpoenas is important. His investigation may expand to implicate even more government employees.  Gansler’s investigation will almost certainly be viewed as a threat to Kane’s political rivals who are maneuvering to kick her out of office.  Kane’s back may be against the wall, but she is pushing back.

At today’s press conference, the Attorney General’s Office displayed a number of allegedly offensive emails.  These included racist and sexist jokes undisputedly offensive to women and minorities. Kane is clearly working to frame the emails as evidence of institutional bigotry within upper echelon of Pennsylvania’s government.  Her position is that she is being attacked by the politically powerful for trying to expose and root out this systemic prejudice.

Interestingly, Gansler went to great lengths at today’s press conference to establish that his investigation would be “independent” and that he would not be biased in anyway in favor of Kane.  It is always fair to question whether an independent investigator hired by an interested party can be truly “independent.” But Gansler didn’t do himself any favors by criticizing the Supreme Court for suspending Kane’s law license.  Gansler said at the press conference that the Supreme Court “waded across lines of separation of powers” in suspending Kane’s license.  If Gansler is truly conducting an “independent investigation” on behalf of Kane, he should probably refrain from offering her public support.

Regardless of the merits of either side’s argument, Kane’s actions today demonstrate that she is not afraid to throw a counter-punch and that her dramatic tenure as Attorney General will not end quietly.

James Goslee is a trial attorney in Philadelphia and can be reached at http://jamiegoslee.com/about/