"Act, act quickly and decisively on the Penn State issue," read one. "Do your due diligence, but act."
No issue outside the state budget debate has attracted such a raw response, said Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley.
Obtained by The Inquirer under the state's Right to Know law, the letters offer a glimpse of the reaction in the days after a statewide grand jury in November accused Sandusky, Paterno's former assistant, of molesting eight boys over a decade and two university officials of turning a blind eye.
Meanwhile, e-mails from Corbett's top advisers - also obtained from the month after the scandal broke - provide a window into an administration grappling with a rapidly unfolding story of national consequence for the state's premier public university and Corbett himself.
But the picture is incomplete. Notably, no e-mails or other writings from Corbett are included. Parts of several other documents - including e-mails and addresses for - were redacted.
In its response to The Inquirer, the governor's office cited state law that allows it to withhold records that related to active investigations or an agency's internal deliberations.
Within hours of Sandusky's Nov. 5 arrest the missives began pouring in. They included e-mails from a North Carolina mother seeking harsh punishment for Sandusky, handwritten notes from sexual-abuse victims, and letters from American expatriates eager to weigh in from locales such as Switzerland and Morocco.
There was even a note from former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, fresh off the Republican presidential campaign trail at the time. It included a pitch for a Minnesota law firm.
"Please find an e-mail from a prominent MN law firm which highlights the experience of one of their partners in investigating misconduct and scandals," Pawlenty wrote in recommending Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, a major donor to political candidates in the North Star State.
