According to the special prosecutor who looked into state Attorney General Kathleen Kane's alleged leak of grand jury secrets, the investigation was proper despite the expiration of a law establishing the authority to appoint special prosecutors.

Kane, who could face criminal charges over the alleged leak, has challenged the supervising grand jury judge's authority to appoint the special prosecutor who carried out the investigation. She has argued, among other things, that the expiration of the Independent Counsel Authorization Act left supervising grand jury Judge William R. Carpenter without the authority to appoint the special prosecutor to investigate the leak.

However, in a brief to the state Supreme Court, special prosecutor Thomas E. Carluccio said the act had been enacted for specific reasons that do not apply to the Kane investigation, and that judges had the power to appoint special prosecutors both before and after the act was in place.