As released by the Office of the Attorney General:

Yesterday the Philadelphia Inquirer published a report concerning emails sent and received from the private email account of Judge Barry F. Feudale.

Metadata from the Office of Attorney General's servers confirm the following:

These emails are currently housed on Office of Attorney General servers. Any implication that the OAG is in possession of emails from Judge Feudale’s personal email account that are not currently on OAG servers is false.

Any implication that these emails are on OAG servers by any other means than the ordinary course of business is, again, false.

Judge Feudale and the Philadelphia Inquirer reporters chose to be the first to discuss these emails in public. Accordingly, today I am releasing these emails so that members of the public will be able to make their own judgment.

Contrary to impressions created by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s story that Judge Feudale was concerned with the law or his commitment to secrecy, make no mistake: Judge Feudale’s overriding concern was how to leak sealed Supreme Court documents without getting caught.

The following are email passages the Philadelphia Inquirer chose not to quote in its story:

Email to Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Craig McCoy from Barry F. Feudale dated July 8, 2013

Subject: “Re: nice meeting you “two” Craig forwad this to Angela I don’t have her email handy”

“I am also considering giving you the brief Order initialy removing me and the Order denying reconsideration with explanation why I was removed…Since…you and Angela seem to be aware of the content of such (I believe you said it, or parts of it was read to you and or parts of the Application for a Writ of Prohibition,) it seems to not in the interest of transparency and completeness to not “confirm” what was said in the order. My Problem is that the Application for a writ was sealed (as are all Kings Bench matters) so I need both your assurance it will only be used as background and you will not reveal me as a source of such.” (emphasis added)

Email to Philadelphia Inquirer reporters Angela Couloumbis and Craig McCoy from Barry F. Feudale dated July 14, 2013

Subject: “Fw: portrait.final comments

“As I indicated I did not think Kane would respond. I suspect her strategy is to wait for the article, then claim I am a knife wielding disgruntled former Grand Jury Judge who has violated secrecy of Grand Jury proceedings as well ignoring an unclear sealing of Application for writ and various responses. I have been advised by more than one to keep my mouth shut. While I know I did not violate secrecy she will claim such. Secrecy is something she will use or abuse as it suits her purposes. As to the sealing of the Writ etc., I am less clear…

“Bottom line “I will not be intimidated by anyone. The price (even if it means I am done working as A Judge) of silence is too high….”

The seriousness of this reckless breach of sealed Supreme Court documents, orchestrated by the presiding judge of a state investigative grand jury, with attorneys and the very reporters who have covered some of the Sandusky, Computergate, and Bonusgate cases, cannot be overstated. The OAG is currently litigating post-conviction motions involving these cases.

I have instructed my office to send a complete set of these emails to the Judicial Conduct Board.

The Senate Local Government Committee met at 10:30 Wednesday morning.

Senate Bills 340,341,342,343,344 were moved out of committee by unanimous votes, Chairman Hutchinson describes the bills as dealing with local government debt and financial security.

Description of the bills and final votes.

Senator Rob Teplitz.

Senate Bill 340.

An Act amending Title 53 (Municipalities Generally) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in indebtedness and borrowing, further providing for definitions, for classification and authority to issue bonds and notes, for cost of project and for exclusion of other self-liquidating debt to determine net nonelectoral debt or net lease rental debt; providing for preliminary filings with the department prior to the issuance of certain debt; further providing for small borrowing for capital purposes, for debt statement, for submission to department, for certificate of approval of transcript, for effect of failure of timely action by department and for records of department; and providing for duties of participants in transactions relating to incurring debt and issuing bonds and notes.

Prime Sponsor:

Senator EICHELBERGER

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Senate Bill 341.

An Act amending Titles 53 (Municipalities Generally) and 65 (Public Officers) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in municipal authorities, further providing for money of authority and for competition in award of contracts; and, in ethics standards and financial disclosure, further providing for investigations by commission.

Prime Sponsor:

Senator BLAKE

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Senate Bill 342.

An Act amending Title 53 (Municipalities Generally) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in municipal authorities, providing for interest rate risk and interest cost management; and, in indebtedness and borrowing, further providing for definitions; and expanding the scope of provisions relating to interest rate risk and interest cost management to include authorities.

Prime Sponsor:

Senator FOLMER

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Senate Bill 343.

An Act providing for requirements for interest rate management agreements entered into by a city or county of the first class.

Prime Sponsor:

Senator TEPLITZ

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Senate Bill 344.

An Act amending the act of December 20, 1967 (P.L.869, No.385), known as the Public Works Contractors' Bond Law of 1967, further providing for duty of prime contractor to provide financial security in certain contracts involving public works and public improvements.

Prime Sponsor:

Senator EICHELBERGER