On Monday, Bill Cosby got a mixed ruling in his civil lawsuit against former Temple University employee Andrea Constand and her attorneys. A Pennsylvania federal judge has thrown out one key claim the embattled entertainer has made, but allowed others to move forward. Additionally, Cosby is being allowed to sue the parent company of National Enquirer. 
 
 Constand is the woman whose rape allegations have Cosby facing a pending criminal proceeding in the state. After the District Attorney brought charges this past December against Cosby over a sexual abuse alleged to have happened back in 2004, Cosby returned fire with a civil lawsuit against Costand, her mother, her attorneys Delores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz, as well as American Media for allegedly breaching the confidentiality provision of a 2006 settlement agreement. 
 
 In a ruling today, U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno has granted a motion to dismiss as it pertains to Constand, her mother and her lawyers talking to law enforcement. 
 
 Although the settlement agreement prohibited Constand and her reps from disclosing any aspect of her prior litigation against Cosby, the judge agrees with Troiani and Kivitz that such confidentiality is unenforceable because it violates public policy by purporting to prevent individuals from providing information concerning alleged criminal conduct. 
 
 Cosby argued from a reading of prior cases that public policy only prevented disclosures elicited through a subpoena, but Robreno rules that Cosby hasn't cited any support for the proposition that parties can be bound against voluntary disclosures to law enforcement officers. 
 
 As such, Cosby loses that aspect of his breach-of-contract claim, but he experiences better luck on how Constand's lawyers allegedly violated confidentiality by participating in the release of Cosby's decade-old deposition —the now infamous one where he admitted giving women drugs for the purpose of sex. 
 
 Troiani and Kivitz contended that they played no role in the release of the deposition transcript and that the court reporting service that leaked the transcript wasn't their vendor. But the judge says these are factual issues that can't be resolved at this preliminary stage. 
 
 Additionally, the judge declines to reject a claim directed at Constand over two 2014 tweets and an interview with the Toronto Sun. In one tweet, Constand wrote, "I won't go away, there is a lot more I will say," and in the other, she wrote, "It's not that everybody just forgot about it, truth is nobody cared." 
 
 Constand argued that the tweets couldn't form the basis of a breach of contract because she didn't name Cosby. 
 
 "This argument is unavailing because, of course, a statement can be a reference to an individual or situation even if it does not explicitly say so," writes the judge. "Whether the tweets were in fact references to Cosby — and, if so, whether Constand breached the CSA by tweeting them — are questions to be answered at a later stage." 
 
 The woman accusing Cosby of rape also fails at the initial stage in making the argument that Cosby's own unclean hands in talking to the press prevents his claim. As Cosby has an unjust enrichment claim against her, she faces the possibility of having to give Cosby back the monetary proceeds of the settlement. Meanwhile, American Media — which was part of the decade-old Constand lawsuit over what it reported in National Enquirer — must also face Cosby's wrath over articles it more recently published on Constand's allegations and Cosby's deposition. The judge find that what's public is another question of fact that can't yet be resolved. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 On the eve of a critical hearing in his criminal case earlier this month, Bill Cosby sued the two lawyers for the woman who accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her, according to court records. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The timing of the legal action meant that what was already a dramatic scene two weeks ago inside a courthouse in Norristown, Pa., had extra meaning for the two lawyers, Dolores M. Troiani and Bebe H. Kivitz, who have tenaciously challenged Mr. Cosby in representing their client, Andrea Constand, over the past 11 years. Both testified in a pretrial hearing knowing that they were the subject of a separate civil action. Only on Tuesday did Judge Eduardo C. Robreno of United States District Court in Pennsylvania lift the seal on parts of the civil case. 
 
 The hearing, in Montgomery County court, was over whether the criminal case against Mr. Cosby could proceed. The judge, Steven T. O’Neill, later ruled it could go forward. 
 
 The suit, which was filed in United States District Court in Pennsylvania and initially placed under seal, underscores how aggressive and multifaceted Mr. Cosby’s legal strategy has become in combating the numerous civil cases and the criminal case against him. 
 
 Anne Poulin, a law professor at Villanova University who is unconnected to the case, said that filing a lawsuit of this kind while a related criminal case was ongoing was unusual, and that the Pennsylvania lawsuit could be an alternate attempt by Mr. Cosby to buy time. 
 
 “Obviously they’re trying to fight on as many fronts as they can,” Ms. Poulin said. 
 
 The exact nature of the suit is unclear, because it is still partly under seal. 
 
 But one concern of the Cosby legal team has been the degree of any cooperation between Ms. Troiani and Ms. Kivitz with the Montgomery County district attorney, Kevin R. Steele, who is trying to bring Mr. Cosby’s criminal case to trial. 
 
 In an initial investigation in 2005, a predecessor of Mr. Steele decided not to bring charges against Mr. Cosby after Ms. Constand accused Mr. Cosby of sexually assaulting her at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. 
 
 In a subsequent civil suit, she won a financial settlement from Mr. Cosby, in 2006. But the terms were kept secret under a confidentiality agreement. 
 
 Since then, Mr. Cosby’s lawyers have repeatedly accused Ms. Troiani and Ms. Kivitz of breaching that agreement. 
 
 During the hearing in Norristown, Ms. Troiani was cross-examined by Mr. Cosby’s lawyer Monique Pressley about how Mr. Steele reopened the criminal investigation. 
 
 Ms. Troiani said Mr. Steele called her and asked to come to her office. She said he asked her to approach Ms. Constand about cooperating in the new investigation. 
 
 “I did not go to him,” Ms. Troiani testified. “He initiated the contact,” she added. 
 
 But she explained, she said during cross-examination, what the settlement required Mr. Steele to do in order to obtain her file on the Cosby civil case without a search warrant, which Ms. Pressley seemed to suggest was a breach of the agreement. 
 
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 “You divulged what was in the confidential settlement agreement to the district attorney before they made the request for the file, didn’t you?” Ms. Pressley said. 
 
 The lawsuit against Ms. Troiani and Ms. Kivitz was filed on Feb. 1, and at one point in the testimony two days later, Ms. Troiani alludes to Mr. Cosby’s “lawsuit against me.” 
 
 Judge Robreno ordered Mr. Cosby to file a redacted version of the complaint with the federal court in Philadelphia. The redacted complaint was not publicly available by late Wednesday. Ms. Pressley declined to comment further. A lawyer for Ms. Troiani and Ms. Kivitz, Jeffrey B. McCarron, declined to comment. 
 
 The suit also names as defendants Ms. Constand; her mother, Gianna; and American Media, publisher of The National Enquirer. 
 
 A lawyer for American Media said he was aware that his client had been sued but that he had not seen the lawsuit. Ms. Constand sued The National Enquirer for libel in 2006, and won a financial settlement from it. The details of its settlement appear to fall under the confidential agreement between Ms. Constand and Mr. Cosby. American Media has been fighting recently to keep those details protected after lawyers for seven other women in Massachusetts who are suing Mr. Cosby for defamation sought to obtain Ms. Troiani’s case files. 
 
 A pretrial hearing in the criminal case has been scheduled for March 8.
– Two days before a judge moved forward with the sexual assault case against him, Bill Cosby sued his accuser, claiming she breached a confidentiality agreement signed as part of a 2006 settlement. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports specific allegations weren't made clear on Tuesday when a judge partially lifted a seal on the suit, naming Andrea Constand, her lawyers Dolores Troiani and Bebe Kivitz, her mother, and the publisher of the National Enquirer as defendants. All apparently signed a confidentiality agreement when Constand settled a civil suit against Cosby, whom she accused of drugging and molesting her in 2004. Cosby's lawyers have repeatedly accused Constand's attorneys of breaching the agreement in the past, reports the New York Times, describing Cosby's latest move as "aggressive." During a pretrial hearing earlier this month, Troiani said the agreement barred Constand from initiating a criminal case against Cosby. However, she argued Constand was in her rights to cooperate with authorities who reached out to her, like the Montgomery County DA who reopened the criminal investigation into her alleged assault. Cosby lawyer Monique Pressley suggested Troiani "divulged what was in the confidential settlement agreement to the district attorney before they made the request for the file." The Hollywood Reporter points out Cosby's lawyers also hinted at legal action after Cosby's deposition in the 2006 civil case became public in July. "How that deposition became public without being court-sanctioned is something we are going to pursue and deal with very vigorously," a lawyer said. It's not the first time he's tried to turn the tables on accusers.