Chief Justice says McCaffery sent explicit e-mails

A statement released Wednesday by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille says that a

forensic investigation into emails sent or received by members of the judiciary found that of 2,800 emails sent by Justice Seamus McCaffery, 234 of those contained sexually explicit material. Castille says that no other Supreme Court justices were involved with transmitting the pornographic materials.

"The large majority of emails were sent by Justice McCaffery to an agent of the Office of Attorney General who has since retired," the statement says. "The agent then forwarded the materials to numerous individuals, most of whose names were redacted in the copies provided to the chief justice."

Castille ordered the investigation following the revelation made by Attorney General Kathleen Kane that several state officials had been sending sexually explicit photos and videos on their government issued accounts. Previous reports said that McCaffery's exchanges came from his personal account.

Kane says her office discovered the emails while reviewing the work of her predecessors when allegations began to surface about Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of minors. She released eight names of government officials that accessed the graphic material. Five of those people have resigned or retired their positions, including Randy Feathers, who gave up his seat on the state parole board on Wednesday.

Feathers said in a statement that his retirement “should not be taken as an acknowledgement of the degree of wrongdoing of which I have been accused by Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.”

Feathers and other Republicans have accused Kane of releasing names from Governor Tom Corbett's administrative team for political reasons, giving a PR advantage to Corbett's opponent in this year's general election, Democratic nominee Tom Wolf. Kane has responded that the more then 30 other names cannot be released because of stipulations in union contracts.

In McCaffery's case, the other  Supreme Court justices could vote to suspend him or refer a complaint to the state Judicial Conduct Board.