Federal Judge Refers Philly DA to Department of Justice for Potential Prosecution

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is perhaps the nation’s most prominent “progressive prosecutors.” Among his priorities as Philly’s DA has been to facilitate sentence reductions and the undoing of criminal prosecutions where there are allegations of prosecutorial misconduct or actual innocence claims. The zeal with which Krasner’s office has pursued these aims has raised eyebrows, however.

In June, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rebuked Krasner’s office for withholding evidence and violating its duty of candor to the court when conceding that a death row inmate was entitled to a new trial, and that these failings were not an isolated occurrence. Rather, according to Justice “There have been numerous instances of untrustworthy concessions, lack of candor, misrepresentations of fact, lack of adequate investigation, and avoidance of hearings” by the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit. Accordingly, the court ordered that the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office would receive notice and a right to intervene in any case in which Krasner’s office offered concessions to those seeking post-conviction relief.

Yesterday, federal district court judge Paul Diamond concluded that the ethical and legal problems in Krasner’s office may be even more serious that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had found. In a blistering order, he concluded that Krasner and one of his deputies, Matthew Stiegler, may have committed criminal misconduct in a case in which the office sought to undo a criminal conviction, despite a weak legal basis for doing so. Among other things, Judge Diamond accused them of dishonesty to the court, efforts to evade discovery of their conduct, and conspiring to falsely blame a junior attorney for errors in a legal filing for which Stiegler was responsible.

Judge Diamond disqualified Krasner and Stiegler from further work on the case due to their conflict of interest and, more notably, referred them to the U.S. Attorney’s office for investigation and potential prosecution.

From Judge Diamond’s opinion:

The evidence before me and the facts I have found reveal more than a disabling conflict. I refer here not to Mr. Krasner’s use of another’s email address, his concern that documents written to him might be discoverable, his repeated insistence that there should be no hearing in this Court, or his almost irrational refusal to refer Johnson to the OAG even though he recently made such a referral. Although that conduct might reveal that Mr. Krasner is aware that he might have acted improperly, it is not itself criminal conduct.

The credible evidence is tantamount to a prima facie showing of conduct that may constitute false statements, false declarations made under oath, perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. See 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (false statements); id. § 1623 (false declaration); id. § 1621 (perjury); id. § 1503 (obstruction of justice); id. § 371 (conspiracy).

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Finally, I have also found that Mr. Krasner and Stiegler worked together to try to convince [four other attorneys in the office] to urge the Court to accept a false narrative. This might amount to criminal conspiracy.

I have thus reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia’s highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law. 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.