Twin sisters hunker down as Kane's woes continue

Nepotism - the practice used by those in power or influence in favoring relatives, especially by giving them jobs.

While Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane did not give her twin sister, Ellen Granahan, a job, she did keep her on in the office as a top prosecutor after her election in 2013. Granahan was hired four years before Kane took office.

Pennsylvanians were surprised that Kane's sister was an employee in the attorney general's office, because both downplayed the relationship, as did office staffers.

But now Granahan has been caught up in the "porngate" email scandal, so their relationship is no longer subterranean.

As complaints mounted about her sister's emails, Kane disavowed original quotes attributed to her that her sister's emails were "less offensive" than others made public by her office as part of the ongoing "porngate" scandal and investigation.

Toward the end of last week, Kane then said she never made a determination - good or bad - about her sister's emails. Kane said others on her staff evaluated Granahan's emails because state ethics laws prohibit her from making disciplinary determinations about her sister.

More than 60 others in the attorney general's office have been disciplined or fired in connection with the tawdry email scandal, but not Granahan. Last week, Kane's office released 57 emails sent or received by Granahan on state computers. At that time, Kane said her office had twice reviewed the messages and found nothing pornographic or offensive.

Granahan's emails, which go back to 2009, mock Asians and blacks and joke about domestic violence. She forwarded at least one of the emails to Kane before she became attorney general.

According to philly.com, Kane made Granahan's messages public after a prosecutor in the Philadelphia district attorney's office challenged her to do so. Kane said Mark Gilson was spreading "shameless falsehoods" about the messages, philly.com reported.

After the emails were released, reaction was swift and scathing. Albert Dandridge, the chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, chastised Kane for not releasing all of the emails found on her office's computers. He characterized Granahan's emails as "disgusting and degrading."

Granahan, 49, became a state prosecutor in 2008; Kane was elected in 2012 and took office in January 2013. Four months later, Granahan was promoted to head the attorney general office's child-protection unit along with a 20 percent salary increase. She now earns $88,509.

A Kane representative said that Kane's chief of staff, not Kane herself, decided on the promotion.

Left unsaid, however, is the fact that the attorney general signs off on all major appointments and promotions.

Kane says that the special prosecutor whom she appointed to examine all emails found on office computers, including those of Granahan, will make a determination about whether any laws were broken. This special investigation, by the way, is expected to cost us taxpayers about $2 million.

On two other occasions, I have called for Kane's resignation. Gov. Tom Wolf and other top Democrats and Republicans want her gone, too, but she insists she has done nothing wrong.

I am not sure on which planet she is currently residing, but it can't be ours.

The state Senate will take up the question as to whether Kane should be forced to resign. If the Senate recommends her termination, Wolf must agree, which he is likely to do.

The sooner this embarrassing scandal is over, the better we Pennsylvanians will be.

BRUCE FRASSINELLI | tneditor@tnonline.com