The Justice Department has sent federal grand jury subpoenas to the office of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, Fox News reported Tuesday, citing two people briefed on the subpoenas. Those sources tied them to potential obstruction of justice in the handling of cases before federal judges and said they grew out of a federal judge's referral of Krasner and one of his top deputies for possible criminal investigation.
Later in the day, the New York Post reported the subpoenas as well, citing a person familiar with the matter who said they concern possible obstruction of justice, perjury and conspiracy in the office's handling of a 2009 murder conviction. The Post said it was not clear whether Krasner and the deputy, Matthew Stiegler, had each received one. The Justice Department declined to comment to Fox News, and Krasner's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment from either outlet.
The referral came on Sept. 15 in a 40-page memorandum that U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond issued in the federal habeas case of Dennis Johnson, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 for the 2007 killing of Kenyatta Smith and was sentenced to life in prison. Diamond disqualified Krasner and Stiegler, the chief of the office's Conviction Integrity Unit, from the case, though he declined to remove the district attorney's office as a whole. He referred the office, Krasner and Stiegler to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania "for investigation and other appropriate action."
Diamond, an appointee of President George W. Bush, wrote that the credible evidence was "tantamount to a prima facie showing of conduct that may constitute false statements, false declarations made under oath, perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy." He added: "I have thus reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia's highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law."
The dispute traces to a reversal inside Krasner's office. In November 2022, the office conceded that Johnson was entitled to relief because his trial lawyer had not objected when a detective told jurors that a man who never testified had identified Johnson as the shooter. A magistrate judge recommended granting the petition the next year. Rather than adopt that recommendation, Diamond ordered an evidentiary hearing in May, called for live testimony from the trial witnesses who had identified Johnson, and invited the Pennsylvania attorney general's office to take part as a friend of the court. In June, four supervisors in the office's Law Division moved to withdraw the 2022 concession, saying it contained "material misstatements."
The supervisors' testimony, which Diamond credited, describes a fight inside the office over how to respond. They told the court that Krasner proposed combing through other cases handled by the prosecutor who had signed the 2022 filing, who has since resigned, so the office could present her errors as a pattern, an idea he credited to Stiegler. The supervisors refused, and one called the plan "tremendously inappropriate." Diamond found that Krasner and Stiegler "worked together to try to convince" the supervisors "to urge the Court to accept a false narrative."
When the supervisors urged him to hand the case to the state attorney general, Krasner was "very opposed," according to Katherine Ernst, one of the four. "We can't send it to OAG because essentially they're all evil," she recalled him saying. Three supervisors testified that he told them "we have to have somebody in the room, in the courtroom to protect the office." Two said he warned of "consequences" if anyone alerted the court to the conflict without his approval, and one testified that he took the word to mean losing his job.
Krasner has rejected the judge's conclusions. In a July filing he co-wrote, his office argued that the four supervisors were themselves conflicted because they would become fact witnesses once the hearing resumed. After the referral, Krasner said he "respectfully and vigorously" disagreed with Diamond's finding. "I look forward to appealing to the higher court as soon as the law allows," he said in a statement reported by WHYY.
Krasner, a Democrat, is serving his third term as district attorney. Diamond has no power to bring charges himself; the decision on whether to seek an indictment belongs to the U.S. Attorney's Office, and neither Krasner nor Stiegler has been charged.