A Supreme Court justice who sent and received hundreds of pornographic emails has called the scandal a “cooked up controversy” and blamed the court’s Chief Justice
A Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice who was snapped up in a government pornographic email scandal blames the court’s Chief Justice who he says launched a “vindictive pattern of attacks” against him.
Justice Seamus McCaffery issued a statement of apology after a review conducted by the court’s Chief Justice Ron Castille showed McCaffery had sent or received 234 emails with sexually explicit material or pornography, The Daily Mail reported.
"I want to reiterate my apology for my lapse in judgment with respect to the offensive emails, personal emails that were made public by the outgoing chief justice," the judge wrote. "It was wrong, and I am sorry."
But he went on to call criticism of his actions a “cooked up controversy” that was part of a campaign against launched by his Chief Justice colleague.
McCaffery claims that Castille “is fixated on taking down a fellow justice with his misleading statements and incredible hypocrisy”, and says Castille is acting against him because he’d previously criticised the Chief Justice’s handling of a juvenile justice scandal.
Castille has declined to respond to McCaffery’s statements, saying: “I don’t respond to name-calling”.
The shamed judge, who was elected to the High Court seven years ago and is a former police officer, says that coarse language and crude jokes were part of his life as a cop and a marine.
It’s not yet decided what will come of the email disclosure scandal, but the court system has said the Supreme Court is currently reviewing the matter.
But over at the Attorney General’s office and four employees have left their government jobs in the weeks since Attorney General Kathleen Kane identified them and a further four staff members as having sent or received explicit and pornographic emails.
