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WASHINGTON — Embattled Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office has been hit with federal grand jury subpoenas following a referral to the Department of Justice for potential prosecution over criminal misconduct, The Post has learned.
The subpoenas are related to possible obstruction of justice, perjury and conspiracy committed while relitigating a 2009 murder case, a source familiar with the matter said.
It’s unclear whether Krasner and one of his deputies implicated in that case, Matthew Stiegler, both received the subpoenas. Fox News first reported on the inquiry.
In November 2022, Krasner’s office filed a petition for the release of Dennis Johnson, who had been convicted of second-degree murder for the killing of Kenyatta Smith during a botched 2007 robbery, claiming Johnson received inadequate counsel.
In June of this year, Krasner’s office moved to withdraw the petition due to “material misstatements,” which the DA and Stiegler allegedly sought to pin on a since-resigned assistant district attorney, Jaclyn Mason.
When line prosecutors suggested that Krasner refer the whole matter to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (OAG), the DA said, as one of the line prosecutors put it in testimony, that “we can’t send it to OAG because essentially they’re all evil” and “we have to have somebody in the room, in the courtroom to protect the office.”
In a stunning 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.
Krasner, whose reps did not respond to a request for comment, is serving his third term. His initial election in 2017 was won with the support of millions of dollars of donations from a George Soros-backed political action committee.