Federal prosecutors have hit Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner's office with grand jury subpoenas after a federal judge referred him to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution — and the case lays bare how billionaire-backed prosecutorial power can run roughshod over the justice system ordinary Americans depend on.
The subpoenas target possible obstruction of justice, perjury, and conspiracy tied to Krasner's handling of a federal murder case, according to a source familiar with the matter. Fox News first reported the inquiry. Neither Krasner nor his deputy, Matthew Stiegler, has been charged.
The probe stems from Krasner's bid to overturn the 2009 second-degree murder conviction of Dennis Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing Kenyatta Smith during a botched 2007 robbery. In November 2022, Krasner's office filed a petition for Johnson's release, claiming inadequate counsel. Then in June, the office moved to withdraw the petition over what it called "material misstatements."
The problem: Krasner and Stiegler allegedly tried to pin those misstatements on a since-resigned assistant district attorney, Jaclyn Mason. Mason wasn't having it. In her resignation letter, she wrote that Stiegler "used me to further his personal agenda of conceding in federal habeas cases regardless of the merits" and that she had "been asked to fall on my sword."
It got worse. When line prosecutors urged Krasner to refer the mess to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, Krasner refused — calling the AG's staff "Nazis" and saying "we can't send it to OAG because essentially they're all evil," according to testimony from one of those prosecutors. He also allegedly instructed four prosecutors to comb through Mason's old cases to "find mistakes that she made" and "say that this was a pattern by her, and then file something with the Court saying that."
U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond, a George W. Bush appointee, had seen enough. In a September 16 memo, Diamond wrote he "reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia's highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law" after hearing testimony. He kicked both Krasner and Stiegler off the Johnson case and referred the matter to DOJ.
The New York Post detailed the full scope of Diamond's findings and the internal scapegoating campaign. The Gateway Pundit framed the referral more directly as Krasner "lying to the court" and suborning perjury — language Diamond's memo supports but stops short of formally charging.
Krasner responded that he "respectfully and vigorously" disagreed with Diamond's decision and looked "forward to appealing to the higher court as soon as the law allows." His office did not respond to a request for comment on the subpoenas.
Follow the money: Krasner's initial 2017 election was bankrolled by millions from a George Soros-backed PAC. In 2021, he took another $1.7 million from the Soros-aligned Justice and Public Safety PAC. That same year, the GOP-controlled state House impeached him — but the Democrat-led state Senate let the clock run out, ending the legislative session without a trial.
So for years, Krasner has operated with billionaire insulation and partisan cover. Now a federal grand jury gets to ask the questions Pennsylvania's legislature wouldn't.
