A federal judge on Sept. 15 referred Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate whether he violated the law while his office was overseeing an appeal from a murder conviction.
U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond disqualified Krasner and Assistant District Attorney Matthew Stiegler, chief of Krasner’s Conviction Integrity Unit, from participating in the post-conviction application involving Dennis Johnson, who seeks to have his second-degree murder conviction overturned.
In September 2009, a state jury in Philadelphia convicted Johnson of second-degree murder, robbery, and a firearms violation. In November 2010, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder plus concurrent terms of up to 10 years for robbery and seven years for the gun charge.
Johnson filed a habeas application asking a federal judge to throw out the murder conviction on constitutional grounds on the theory that his trial lawyer failed to raise an important hearsay objection during a police detective’s testimony.
Normally, a district attorney defends a conviction. In 2022, Krasner’s office filed a brief saying Johnson’s trial lawyer had been ineffective, and the conviction should be thrown out. In June 2026, four senior prosecutors in the same office asked the court to withdraw the brief, saying it contained material misstatements about the trial testimony.
Diamond took the rare step of recommending that the DOJ investigate whether Krasner committed crimes, including obstruction of justice and perjury.
In a written opinion, Diamond said that evidentiary hearings revealed “troubling” activity by Krasner and Stiegler concerning how the Johnson case was handled.
Among the activities alleged was the office leaning on staffers to lie to the judge in court and vowing “consequences” for those who failed to follow Krasner’s orders, Diamond said.
Diamond said that Krasner and Stiegler worked together to persuade four senior prosecutors to tell the court a false story about the 2022 brief: that a junior prosecutor, not Stiegler, was to blame for its misstatements of the trial testimony—including claims that a witness identification was unreliable, when the witness had actually testified he saw Johnson’s face and had known him for years.
“This might amount to criminal conspiracy,” Diamond said.
“I have thus reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia’s highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law,” the judge said.
Diamond referred Krasner, Stiegler, and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for “investigation and other appropriate action.”
Krasner said he “respectfully and vigorously” disagrees with Diamond’s ruling.
“I look forward to appealing to the higher court as soon as the law allows,” he said.
Carrie Adamowski, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, declined to comment on the ruling.
A controversial officeholder, Krasner’s left-wing views and outspokenness have made him a lightning rod for criticism since he was first elected in 2017.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Sept. 16, 2026, in The Epoch Times.