HARRISBURG - A top state prosecutor is raising questions about Attorney General Kathleen Kane's hiring of outside lawyers to investigate a government email scandal and said a judge is looking into whether secrecy laws were broken when Kane's office gave hundreds of thousands of emails to the lawyers.

The revelations came in a letter released Thursday by a state senator and were promptly disputed by Kane allies. However, the letter appears to reveal a growing rift between Kane and top lawyers in her office as she fights criminal charges, the suspension of her law license and her potential removal from office by the state Senate.In the letter to Republican state Sen. Lisa Baker, First Deputy Attorney General Bruce Beemer said the October suspension of the Democrat's law license by the state Supreme Court should have prevented her from appointing a special prosecutor to lead the probe.Beemer wrote that neither he nor any member of the legal staff he supervises was consulted before Kane announced Dec. 1 that she had appointed former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, a Democrat, to lead a team of lawyers at his law firm in the investigation. His letter, dated Wednesday, was responding to a list of 24 questions asked by Baker last week.Further, Beemer wrote that Gansler cannot be appointed to be a special prosecutor or employee of Kane's office. Doing so, according to Beemer's letter, would violate state conflict of interest laws that are applicable because the office has already approved a contract with the BuckleySandler firm, where Gansler is a partner.A Kane spokesman, Chuck Ardo, said Thursday the attorney general maintains she had the authority to appoint Gansler. In an interview Thursday, Gansler accused Beemer of trying to mislead lawmakers and block the investigation."For whatever reason it is, Beemer and his guys don't want us to conduct this independent investigation," Gansler said.Gansler also disagreed with Beemer over his employment status, saying his responsibilities began Dec. 1. He said his appointment, including the authority to pursue criminal charges, and pay rate are consistent with the Pennsylvania Independent Counsel Authorization Act, which expired in 2003.Conflict of interest laws don't apply in this case, Gansler said, because he was appointed separately from his law firm's hiring.Kane announced the investigation into the emails amid the growing scandal that began to unfold in late 2014.After taking office in 2013, lawyers in Kane's office discovered hundreds of emails containing pornographic images and videos or jokes involving misogyny or racial stereotypes had been exchanged for years by prosecutors, agents, judges and other government officials on state computers.As the emails have slowly dribbled out from Kane's office or other channels, the scandal has claimed the jobs of several government officials and prompted a state Supreme Court justice to resign. A second state Supreme Court justice is suspended and facing misconduct charges.Since Dec. 1, BuckleySandler lawyers have received hundreds of thousands of emails to review, which Beemer suggested could violate secrecy laws. The firm has refused to give back the emails, Beemer wrote. The emails were given to BuckleySandler without his approval and despite his warning to Kane's chief of staff not to release them, he added.A grand jury judge "is taking appropriate steps to investigate" whether any of the emails contained investigative grand jury information that is protected by secrecy laws, Beemer wrote. The judge "has authorized me to inform you" that no order permitting the disclosure of any such information was given, he wrote.Ardo and Gansler said they were unaware of a grand jury judge making any inquiries about the emails.No secrecy laws have been broken and there was no reason to give the emails back to the attorney general's office, Gansler said. He and the firm's lawyers who are involved in the investigation took grand jury secrecy oaths, he said, and he doubts the team will come across any investigative information in its searches of the emails.In any case, Gansler said, he offered Beemer the opportunity to have an office lawyer review any such information come across by the outside lawyers.