What goes around, comes around
There’s plenty of reason to believe that Eakin’s “apology” is not only dishonest and calculating, but that Eakin continues to carry on the worst of his misbehavior.
Did you hear the one about the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice who apologized for sharing off-color emails? He’s sincerely sorry for everything he’s done, but he’s sure glad he messed up that bitch in the Attorney General’s office who caught him.
Kathleen Kane and Michael Eakin
“It is disconcerting and embarrassing to find others searching years of private emails looking for and publicizing any insensitive content. I sincerely apologize for such content.
“Those who know me understand the items chosen for release do not reflect my character or beliefs, nor have they ever been part of my consideration of any case or business of the Court. I do not offer this as an excuse, and will continue to cooperate fully with the independent review by the Court and the Conduct Board.”
There’s plenty of reason to believe that Eakin’s “apology” is not only dishonest and calculating, but that Eakin continues to carry on the worst of his misbehavior.
Not only has Eakin potentially violated the civil rights of hundreds or perhaps thousands of litigants and defendants before the courts by carrying on cozy and private, or ex parte, relationships with prosecutors and lawyers in his email chain.
Eakin also sat back for a year and said nothing while the court conducted not one, not two, but four supposed investigations to locate offensive emails.
The entire time Eakin knew exactly where everyone should be looking: in his own Yahoo account, under the classic cheap hotel check-in name, “John Smith.”
The court, in the person of Justice Eakin, would have had access to these emails all along, if only he had been forthcoming, and simply spoken up.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, Eakin then refused to recuse himself from votes that severely harmed the woman whose investigations uncovered this growing scandal: Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
Eakin’s was one of five votes cast last month by the court to suspend Kane’s law license, which certainly serves not only to handicap AG Kane in her official duties, but will badly prejudice her as she tries to defend herself before a jury from charges cooked up by others in the email chain.
And earlier this year, in March, Eakin also did not recuse himself from an equally crucial court vote against Kane that upheld the unprecedented court appointment of a special prosecutor to go after the AG.
In that decision, Eakin not only voted, but also joined the opinion written by Chief Justice Thomas Saylor.
How do we know that Eakin’s crocodile-tear “apology,” issued on Wednesday, was neither honest nor sincere?
About the same time on Wednesday as Eakin was issuing his self-serving apology, he continued to allow AG Kane to be attacked for supposedly not turning over Eakin’s emails to court investigators last year.
Kane was forced to issue a statement that read:
“Last Friday evening, the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board by its chief counsel, Robert A. Graci, made public allegations that the OAG did not previously provide the JCB with the Eakin emails that were sent to the JCB three weeks ago and which, subsequently, became the subject of a Philadelphia Daily News story. The JCB said, ‘The board believed that it had been provided with all such information when it concluded its prior investigation. However, recent revelations, including news accounts of emails sent to or from Justice Eakin’s personal email account, demonstrate that the board was not provided with all of the information on the Attorney General’s servers relating to that account.’
“Former Chief Justice Castille called this ‘outrageous’… constitute[ing] a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.’
“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court subsequently issued a press release claiming that a number of the emails ‘were not made available’ by my office last year.
After a thorough review of the FACTS regarding Supreme Court Justice Eakin’s private email account, with both verification by two deputy attorneys general and a senior supervisory special agent, as well as documentary evidence there is one clear and unequivocal conclusion: The JCB, Supreme Court Special Counsel Robert L. Byer, and the Supreme Court itself had access in 2014 to the emails reported by the Philadelphia Daily News and now in possession of Joseph Del Sole for review.
“The facts are as follows:
“1. On November 5, 2014, Robert Graci, Chief Counsel of the JCB, and investigators of the JCB viewed a disc containing the personal emails of Justice Eakin’s that contained numerous photos and videos that contain nudity. These emails were part of the complete set of emails my office sent to the JCB last month that ultimately were made public by the Philadelphia Daily News. They are as The Daily News has described them: ‘raunchy, sexist, [and] racist’ and circulated among a ‘district attorney…first assistant district attorney, a county judge, a senior deputy attorney general, an assistant U.S. attorney and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee…a deputy clerk for a federal judge, a lawyer with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and a second Common Pleas judge in Dauphin County.’
“2. Mr. Graci, Beemer, and JCB investigators viewed these emails in the OAG office of Bruce Beemer, First Deputy Attorney General. The viewing was conducted and witnessed by a Senior Supervisory Special Agent.
“3. Mr. Graci and JCB investigators were provided these email files on disc and left the OAG with them in hand on Nov.5, 2014. OAG retained a copy of the emails with attachments that were contained on this disc.
“4. On December 8, 2014, Mr. Graci concluded his investigation of Justice Eakin and made a recommendation to the JCB.
“5. On December 19, 2014, OAG received notification that Byer had suddenly concluded his investigation of Eakin emails and his report would be released publically within 30 minutes. OAG informed Mr. Byer that the investigation was not complete as of yet.
“6. On December 19, 2014, the ‘Report of the Special Counsel Concerning Review of Email Messages Involving Supreme Court Justices and Office of Attorney general from 2008-2012.’ commonly referred to as the Byer Report for its author, Robert L. Byer. was made public. The Byer Report makes clear that it covered‘[t]he additional 1,038 email messages that were sent to or from Justice Eakin’s personal account.’ The internal report and subsequent review by OAG confirms this. Mr. Byer was given complete access to all of the Eakin private emails requested by Chief Justice Castille via an electronic vault set up by the OAG in November of 2014, records of Byer’s access into the vault confirm the same.
“7. Folders were created by OAG in this vault for Byer with the categories, amongst others, ‘sexual forwards’ and ‘non sexual forwards’ for efficiency and ease of access. Records confirm this fact.
“To conclude, Mr. Byer, who was commissioned by then Chief Justice Castille, had access to 1038 personal emails of Justice Eakin, which contained videos and photos described in news articles. Mr. Byer’s report fails to mention any questionable emails in his report. OAG vault records confirm Byer’s access and the exact emails. The JCB had in its possession and viewed a disc on Nov.5, 2014 containing numerous videos and photos containing nude women. Any allegation or statement that these two entities did not have the information because of any action of OAG is FACTUALLY incorrect. ”
Making matters worse, at about the same time as Eakin was “apologizing,” and Kane was forced to issue the above statement, the court’s “Special Counsel” Byer was publicly contradicting AG Kane’s account of events.
But this flap within a cyclone was nothing but smoke, and was totally unnecessary, and even appalling, if given any thought at all.
At any time in the past year Justice Eakin could have, and should have, come forward and taken responsibility for his own “John Smith” emails.
By the same token, Eakin certainly could have, and should have, called off the partisan dogs attacking Kane just this week over the rushed hunt for his emails that, just as obviously, were his responsibility not only in their circulation, but also in his continuing to hide them.
So Eakin’s “apology” is not only disingenuous and dishonest: it is simply more of the same from Eakin. His “apology” is designed to protect only himself, not the court or its litigants, and deflects harm to others, as he has been doing all along.
Some have suggested with good reason that Justice Eakin should immediately and summarily resign from the high court.
By that token an argument can also be made that every member of the entire slipshod state Supreme Court should resign.
But we should insist that Justice Eakin be afforded not only the presumption of innocence in this matter, but full due process. Both of which Eakin himself errantly refused to afford Kathleen Kane.
If nothing else, the entire continuing saga of the still-concealed porno emails is proof of the adage, “What goes around, comes around.”
By trampling Kane’s rights to due process and presumption of innocence, Eakin has helped to set a dangerously low standard that some will attempt to apply to others, including Eakin.
For that reason, we must demand full due process and presumption of innocence not only for AG Kane, but also for Justice Eakin, and others.
If Justice Eakin were sincere in his apology, he would begin to undue the severe damage he has done.
A good first step would be for Eakin to advocate that the court revisit Kane’s unprecedented law license suspension, and the court-appointed prosecution against her which, after all, were both brought by her vengeful political enemies in Eakin’s own email chain.
The quality of mercy, the Bard reminds us, is not strained.
In the last few days, Pennsylvanians have been treated to an inside look at how our dysfunctional, politicized courts really work, or, more to the point, how they don’t work.
Rolling a few more heads in a summary fashion isn’t going to help a single Pennsylvanian. We need real, structural reforms.
But what of Michael Eakin?
Justice Eakin is a former district attorney.
As a prosecutor, Eakin well knows better than most that forgiveness can only begin with real contrition.
We will discuss the roles in this investigations of Robert Byer and Robert Graci in a future article.
The only thing he is remotely sorry about is getting caught.
Wow, what a great article. I thought journalism in PA had gone the way of the politicized courts. What ever happened to ethics? If Eakin had any he would resign immediately. The abuse of the public trust is unbelievable. Thank you.
There is PLENTY of Corruption right here in Delaware County, Pa. The District Attorney, Jack Whelan, a few of his Assistant DA’s, a few of the County Judges, State Representative, also in Trainer Borough where the Chief of Police sent a VERY horrific crime scene picture of a suicide victim to a 13 year old child.
Then you have more then $8,000 in personal property stolen, over $1 Million Dollars of money Misused/Stolen, Misuse of government equipment and Office, plenty of ‘Political Strings’ being pulled.
We have plenty of evidence including voice mail, voice recording, pictures, emails, etc. Also have a Brief filed by my Attorney, who is a 5 Star, Super Lawyer here in Delaware County, statung about one of the Judges misconduct.
Come join our Facebook Group Page called Chichester Friends
Learn all about it there. NO one has yet to come see all this evidence.
Are there even any basic ethics which the PA Judiciary adheres to?
It’s obvious it wasn’t just the embarrassment about the nature of the e-mails, it’s clear they are after Kane because they know just what she knew when she found the chain senders and recipients: people who should be only communicating on official levels through official channels are engaging at a level which if known would compromise investigations and prosecutions.
I think the FBI should be investigating the whole batch and Pennsylvania can’t just wait for people to be voted out of office. Clearly they are conspiring against Kane illegally and that alone should warrant investigations.
He doesn’t owe anybody an apology. He owes everybody his resignation.
If he doesn’t have the decency to resign (which he almost certainly does NOT), then he should be suspended pending a full investigation.
Of course, like the first investigation, this one should take no more than a week or two! Then, he should be removed and his pension should be forfeited. His actions were, and are, disgusting.
He should also be disbarred for not recusing himself on the votes regarding Kathleen Kane.
The remaining few justices on the highest court in PA should also resign. They allowed this to continue for nearly a year. They should have stepped up to the plate, but they all failed. They’re no better than than Eakin, McCaffery and Castille.
They’ve all ruined the reputation of the Court, and it will likely take decades for citizens to regain any trust in our judicial system.
Yes, the federal government needs to take over – AND CLEAN HOUSE. The corruption in PA is rampant.
One hopes that the latest disclosure of PA judicial sordidness will renew calls for a merit-based selection of judges. Winning an election is no measure of judicial competence (or in this case – human decency).
Eakin voted to yank the law license of and appoint a special prosecutor against the person (Kane) who had the evidence on him.
What of Eakin’s wife Heidi representing sinning judges before the Judicial Conduct Board? What of Judge Eakin playing golf with Jayne Duncan’s Judge and Heidi telephone the DA’s office and bragging about it? This is exactly what’s not suppose to happen in our justice system. This can all be collaborated and should be prosecuted by the Judicial Conduct Board and the Board of Discipline.
Once again a first-rate piece of journalism by Bill Keisling. Some blame needs to be applied to the traditional media, large newspapers, radio and TV stations. No wonder they have trouble making a profit any more. They should do their job.
Watch this piece on his wife’s manipulation of the system using her Supreme Court Judge’s name to get business:
http://daddyjustice.com/wp/?p=1266