A federal judge referred Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Tuesday to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible prosecution, saying he appeared to have misled the court over a case where he’s trying to free a murder convict.
Judge Paul S. Diamond Jr., a George W. Bush appointee, also booted Mr. Krasner and top aide Matthew Stiegler from any further participation in the case.
The judge said they may have engaged in a conspiracy to mislead the courts about facts in the case, and tried to pressure subordinate lawyers to cover it up with a “false narrative.”
“I have thus reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia’s highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law,” the judge wrote.
Mr. Krasner is part of billionaire donor George Soros’ crusade to get left-wingers elected as local prosecutors. He’s also been a fierce critic of President Trump.
In the case before Judge Diamond, Dennis Johnson is challenging his 2009 murder conviction by a Philadelphia jury and his life sentence.
He has filed numerous post-conviction petitions seeking to overturn the conviction.
The Philadelphia district attorney’s office had routinely opposed them, but after Mr. Krasner’s election, it dropped its opposition. In 2022, when one of the witnesses to the slaying recanted his identification of Johnson as the murderer, Mr. Krasner’s office said it supported Johnson’s request for release.
Judge Diamond said the office seemed to search for reasons to “concede” the case to Johnson.
That included failing to do its own investigation and accepting Johnson’s lawyer’s version of events. That led to filing a brief that included “material misstatements.”
Mr. Krasner and Mr. Stiegler then tried their best to avoid a hearing before Judge Diamond that could expose things, the judge said.
In a statement Tuesday, Mr. Krasner “respectfully and vigorously” disagreed with the judge.
“I look forward to appealing to the higher court as soon as the law allows,” he said.
Judge Diamond had appointed the state attorney general’s office to handle the opposition to Johnson once Mr. Krasner’s office said it wouldn’t oppose his release.
The state prosecutors urged Judge Diamond to disqualify the entire district attorney’s office from any participation in the case. But the judge declined, saying that he couldn’t find a precedent for doing so and that the problems lay primarily with Mr. Krasner and Mr. Stiegler.
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