Freeh had maintained publicly that his investigation was entirely independent and would include "no favoritism". This was criticized by Pennsylvania state Senator Jake Corman, who claimed, "There clearly is a significant amount of communication between Freeh and the NCAA that goes way beyond merely providing information. I'd call it coordination ... Clearly, Freeh went way past his mandate. He was the enforcement person for the NCAA. That's what it looks like. I don't know how you can look at it any other way. It's almost like the NCAA hired him to do their enforcement investigation on Penn State. At a minimum, it is inappropriate. At a maximum, these were two parties working together to get an outcome that was predetermined." NCAA Vice President of Academic and Membership Affairs Kevin Lennon wrote in another email from July 14 that the NCAA was "banking on the fact the school is so embarrassed they will do anything" before interim Penn State president Rodney Erickson signed the consent decree. Senator Corman and state treasurer Rob McCord used the Freeh report as a basis of their lawsuit against the NCAA.