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Lawyers reviewing "Porngate" emails for Kane to get up to $880 an hour

HARRISBURG - Lawyers hired by state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane to scour thousands of emails on state servers for pornography and other offensive content will be paid up to $880 an hour, according to a contract made public Friday.

HARRISBURG - Lawyers hired by state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane to scour thousands of emails on state servers for pornography and other offensive content will be paid up to $880 an hour, according to a contract made public Friday.

The compensation for five lawyers who will participate in the review is spelled out in the contract between Kane's office and the Washington law firm of Buckley Sandler. The rates, the lowest of which is $205 an hour, reflect a 15 percent discount from the firm's usual rates.

Kane appointed one of the firm's partners, former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, to lead the review. Gansler said he had agreed to work for roughly $80 an hour, proportional to Kane's $159,000-a-year state salary, although the details of his contract are still being fine-tuned.

Gansler, a Democrat, said approval of the contracts means that the review can start next week, focusing on emails on government computers that date back to 2009. He said the $2 million estimate of the cost of the review was a "best guess" based on preliminary information.

The team, which will have subpoena and grand jury powers, may prosecute if it finds evidence of any crimes in emails shared by judges, prosecutors and others.

Kane, the first Democrat and first woman to be elected attorney general, is running her office without a law license as she fights unrelated charges of perjury and obstruction for allegedly leaking secret grand jury material to a reporter and then lying about it. The state Supreme Court suspended her license in October and Gov. Wolf, also a Democrat, has called for her to resign.

Last year, Kane uncovered emails that she described as "racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and religiously offensive" when she appointed another outside lawyer to review her predecessors' handling of the child sexual abuse investigation into former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

She has gradually released thousands of emails to reporters and disciplined dozens of people inside her own agency who traded the emails in what has become a far-reaching government scandal.

One state Supreme Court justice, Seamus McCaffery, abruptly retired after his role in "Porngate" became public last year. A sitting justice, J. Michael Eakin, was advised Thursday by the court that rules on judicial misconduct cases that he faces possible suspension over offensive emails he traded with lawyers and others.