Trump DOJ Handed Opportunity To Indict Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s Troubled ‘Progressive Prosecutor’

The criminal referral to the Department of Justice of the left-leaning district attorney Larry Krasner is yet another rebuke from the bench of one of America’s most notorious prosecutors. This reprimand, though, carries a threat that Mr. Krasner, who has been financially supported by leftist billionaire financier George Soros, could himself face indictment.The referral came from Judge Paul Diamond, an appointee of President George W. Bush. The judge writes in a 40-page memorandum that he has “reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia’s highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law” by committing “false statements, false declarations under oath, perjury, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.” The referral concerns an appeal for a defendant, Dennis Johnson, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2022, Mr. Krasner’s office filed a brief in support of Johnson’s motion to overturn his conviction. In June, though, the district attorney filed a motion to withdraw that brief on account of “material misstatements” and a “conflict of interest.”Judge Diamond finds that Mr. Krasner — whom he disqualified from the case in addition to referring him for possible prosecution — was “burdened by multiple conflicts” regarding the appeal and that the “expert” opinion he cited in his brief was “a disorganized mess and largely useless.” Judge Diamond, though, declined to disqualify the entire district attorney’s office, reasoning that there is “virtually no reported authority upholding the disqualification of an entire government agency.”The judge contends that Mr. Krasner schemed to “present a false narrative to the Court” and put his subordinates “in an impossible situation that might jeopardize them professionally and may have violated the law.” Mr. Krasner responds that “I respectfully and vigorously disagree with the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law. I look forward to appealing to the higher court as soon as the law allows. This remains a pending matter, which limits for now my and my office’s ability to respond.”This is not the first reprimand Mr. Krasner has received from the bench. In June, a divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court rebuked his office for how it handled submissions to a court tasked with reviewing criminal convictions. The Keystone State’s highest tribunal determined that “there have been numerous instances of untrustworthy concessions, lack of candor, misrepresentations of fact, lack of adequate investigation, and avoidance of hearings.”The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered that future submissions from Mr. Krasner’s office be subject to scrutiny from the state attorney general, Dave Sunday. The Supreme Court cited at least one case in which a convicted murderer, Lavar Brown, was “erroneously” granted a new trial and predicted that such errors were “poised to continue.”Mr. Krasner responded with a two-minute video in which he declared that “Reform can be scary to those who need it” and that “Like all other social justice movements, criminal justice reform follows a pattern. First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you. And they fight you. And we have been fighting for eight-and-a-half years.”In 2022, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives impeached Mr. Krasner for “derelictions of duty” and “misbehaviors in office,” an effort that was unsuccessful. A graduate of Stanford Law School and a longtime criminal defense attorney, he was elected district attorney in 2017 as a self-described “progressive prosecutor.” He was reelected a third time last year in Philadelphia.Mr. Krasner has retained his job even as other progressive prosecutors — San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin and Los Angeles’s George Gascón, to name two — have been voted out of office. A decision whether to prosecute Mr. Krasner will be made by the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, David Metcalf. An appointee of President Trump, he was confirmed by the Senate in October 2025.

Trump DOJ Handed Opportunity To Indict Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s Troubled ‘Progressive Prosecutor’

Trump DOJ Handed Opportunity To Indict Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s Troubled ‘Progressive Prosecutor’

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