In a stunning move, a federal judge on Tuesday referred Soros-backed Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner for federal criminal investigation to determine whether he should be charged with conspiracy or obstruction of justice in his efforts to overturn a murder conviction.
U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond, a George W. Bush appointee, said testimony from the DA’s staffers described conduct by Larry Krasner and his top deputy, Matthew Stiegler, as “troubling.”
Larry Krasner and his attorneys are now being accused of committing crimes, such as suborning perjury, after they received a court petition to overturn a 2009 second-degree murder conviction.
Dennis Johnson was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 for the slaying of Kenyatta Smith at a Philadelphia convenience store.
Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Over the last ten years, Johnson has been fighting his conviction.
Four prosecutors in the DA’s office alleged that Krasner pressured staffers to provide false information to the court to shield a supervisor from blame.
“I have thus reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia’s highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law,” Judge Diamond wrote.
“In these circumstances, with the issuance of this Memorandum, I refer the DAO, Mr. Krasner, and Stiegler to this District’s United States Attorney’s Office for investigation and other appropriate action,” the judge said.
Krasner and Stiegler are both barred from any further participation in Johnson’s ongoing bid to overturn his murder conviction.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
A federal judge said Tuesday that District Attorney Larry Krasner may have broken the law while overseeing a contentious post-conviction case, and he said he referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate whether Krasner should be charged with crimes including conspiracy or obstruction of justice.
U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond made those stunning statements in a memorandum in which he also ruled that Krasner and one of his top supervisors, Matthew Stiegler, could not longer participate in the case — a matter in which a man is seeking to have his murder conviction overturned.
Diamond wrote that over the past several months, as he conducted hearings to learn more about how attorneys in DA’s office handled that case, testimony from some of Krasner’s staffers revealed actions by Krasner and Stiegler that Diamond called “troubling,” “disturbing” — and potentially illegal.
Those actions, he wrote, included pressuring other staffers to take steps to protect Stiegler and blame one of his subordinates; urging staffers to lie to Diamond in court; and threatening “consequences” for those who did not follow Krasner’s orders.
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