Just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder, Justice Seamus McCaffery is apparently claiming that if he’s going down, he’s bringing the whole court with him.
To recap, earlier this month we found out Justice McCaffery was among those the Attorney General found had been exchanging pornographic emails with government employees. Chief Justice Castille then got his hands on the emails and told the press that no other justice was involved.
Finally, yesterday McCaffery released a long accusatory letter aimed at the Chief Justice that portrayed the scandal as an effort by Castille to get McCaffery off the court.
Now, Justice Michael Eakin has released his own letter to the press saying that Justice McCaffery threatened to release Eakin’s supposedly inappropriate private emails.
“Justice McCaffery said he was receiving communications from ‘people’, and that ‘they’ had in their possession inappropriate emails that involved me,” Eakin wrote. “He described the purported nature of the emails, which involved my private ‘John Smith’ Yahoo email account.”
“The subject of much recent publicity concerning the sending of salacious emails, Justice McCaffery next told me he ‘was not going down alone.’ Justice McCaffery told me that I had to cause the Chief Justice to retract his media statements of the prior day,” Eakin claimed. “I told him I would not attempt to do so even if it were possible. He repeated that I had to, and that he ‘needed an answer’ by noon to prevent release of the emails involving my account.”
Eakin refused and soon reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News were asking about “racy” personal emails that they had received.
In addition to releasing the letter to the press, Eakin also sent it to the state’s Judicial Conduct Board.
Suffice to say, stay tuned for further developments.
Update: Justice McCaffery has released the following statement:
“Yesterday, I had a phone conversation with Justice J. Michael Eakin, whom I respect as a colleague. The purpose of my call was to inform him that I was hearing strong rumors that a personal email account that belonged to him contained not only hundreds of sexually explicit emails, but – even worse – racially offensive images. In light of my own recent experience, and given the way these emails have been leaking, I expressed my concern for him, especially because of the racially-charged emails, which, as I recall, I told him I feared could bring him down.
“Although he was extremely agitated and upset, Justice Eakin told me he appreciated the call and the ‘heads-up’ and specifically lamented the fact that this whole email controversy has been Chief Justice Castille’s doing. In fact, he told me that he had written to Castille on Monday to urge him to stop putting out all of this information, but that he was certain he could not stop the Chief Justice from continuing his attacks against me.
“I unequivocally deny Justice Eakin’s allegations that I threatened or coerced him to do anything. What I did do was to try to help him prepare himself for the same kind of media onslaught that I have endured, and urged him to talk to his close, personal friend, Ronald Castille, to stop the mud-slinging that has so tarnished our Court. I unequivocally deny that I have or ever have had Justice Eakin’s personal emails, and I have never leaked anything to the media.”
7 Responses
All of them are crooked one way or another.Throw them all out!
All 7 Justices need to go The Whole place needs to be cleaned up Literally and Figuratively Castile and His Family Court Fiasco His Spouse abuse and other errrors in Judgement McCaffery for many Things Eakin for His Porn Fetish and The rest of them cause they Knew or should have Known what was going on What do we say to The School Children that Visit The Supreme Court Do we tell them these guys are a Bunch of Crooked Pervs ? Or do we Lie to the Children
Why am I not surprised by all of this. A low level, front line, Commonwealth employe would have been shown the door well before now.
I’d say commit McCaffery, but I don’t think pride qualifies as a mental illness.
“…urged him to talk to his close, personal friend, Ronald Castille…,” Sounds like a shakedown.
The Justices need to get rid of the robes and start wearing pants.
@ Observer:
Documentation?
Forget Eakin and Seamus. The “Chief Justice” KNEW abot Eakin’s little Porn Problem – and LIED TO THE PUBLIC. Castille should resign in disgrace, and forfeit his pension for Extortion. And Eakin is due to be Chief Justice in two years?? What a JOKE!