A federal court has reinstated a lawsuit against former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, according to a report from Philly.com.

The suit was filed by former state prosecutors and a former state police commissioner, who claim Kane smeared them in attempt to stop criticism of her, according to the report.

"The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously reversed the decision of a lower-court judge last year that Kane's criticism of former State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan and former Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina and others was not a threat but 'mere speech,'" the report states.

The suit centered over a dispute between Kane and Fina after the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2014 that Kane had stopped an into a sting involving Philadelphia elected officials, according to the report.

Evidence in that case, which was led by Fina, included tapes of politicians pocketing cash from an undercover operative.



"Kane blamed Fina for the embarrassing story. To retaliate, she leaked grand jury material about an unrelated investigation to the Daily News to suggest that Fina, too, had failed to pursue a case," according to the report.

Kane later held a news conference and filed court papers where she named Noonan, Fina, and the other plaintiffs as having exchanged porn on state computers while in office.

"In the resultant furor, Feathers and Sheetz lost jobs they had taken after leaving the Attorney General's Office, and Fina and Costanzo were subjected to harsh criticism in their new roles as prosecutors with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office," according to the report.