HARRISBURG — A judge Thursday rejected an informal request from Pennsylvania’s embattled attorney general to authorize the release of pornographic e-mails that came to light in a scandal she exposed last year.

Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter said in a statement that Attorney General Kathleen Kane had not filed a formal request with the court regarding the e-mails so he could not rule on the matter.

At a news conference Wednesday, Kane blamed a criminal case against her on efforts to conceal the names of those involved in circulating pornographic and racially insensitive e-mails she says were shared among prosecutors and judges.

She called upon Carpenter, who supervised the grand jury probe that led to the charges, to allow her to go beyond the particulars of what she released last year in bringing the scandal to light. She asked for permission to release the e-mails and to stipulate that she would not be penalized for doing so.