Attorney General Kathleen Kane will defend Gov. Tom Wolf's administration in a lawsuit over the firing of Erik Arneson, the former executive director of the Office of Open Records.
"Our office is representing the Governor's Office," AG spokesman Aaron Sadler confirmed in an email Tuesday.
Arneson was appointed to the post earlier this month by outgoing Gov. Tom Corbett. He helped revise the Right to Know Law that created the office and had most recently served as a Republican spokesman.
On Thursday, Arneson was informed that Wolf was removing him. He continued coming to work, but his office was locked Monday morning.
On Monday, Arneson and the Republican Senate Majority Caucus filed a lawsuit for injunctive relief against Wolf, the Department of Community and Economic Development and the Office of Open Records.
Wolf, who had criticized Arneson's "eleventh hour" appointment, cited Arneson's demotion of a qualified chief counsel in favor of a Corbett staffer as evidence that the independent office was becoming politicized.
"These attempts to change the office, which exists to protect the public's right to know, are the exact reasons people distrust their state government," he said, in a written statement. "When given the choice between protecting the public and playing politics, I will stand with the people of Pennsylvania."