The judge who accused DA Larry Krasner of potential crimes will not step back from the case
Krasner accused U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond of being biased against him. Diamond said aspects of Krasner's filings were "frivolous" and "intemperate."
The federal judge who accused District Attorney Larry Krasner of potentially breaking the law said he will not step back from the case in which he believes Krasner’s wrongdoing occurred, according to an order he filed Wednesday.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond was a rejection of a request by Krasner, who said in court documents last month that Diamond should be removed from the case due to his “apparent bias” against the city’s top prosecutor.
But Diamond, in his order, said he found Krasner’s arguments not only unconvincing but “frivolous.” He also rejected a request by Krasner to reconsider his order barring Krasner from participating in the underlying case moving forward, saying the decision to do so was “reasonable and warranted.”
Krasner’s “intemperate filings provide no basis for recusal or reconsideration of my rulings,” Diamond wrote, adding separately that Krasner’s filings “generate more heat than light.”
The decision was the latest development in a high-profile saga that has led to a series of controversial developments concerning Krasner’s office.
Chief among them was Diamond’s issuance of a memorandum last month in which he said Krasner and one of his top supervisors, Matthew Stiegler, may have committed crimes including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, or perjury while participating in a post-conviction case Diamond has been overseeing.
The judge also said he had referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for a potential criminal inquiry. Federal prosecutors have declined to comment on how or if they might proceed.
Krasner, a Democrat, has denied wrongdoing. And in a series of documents he filed last month, he said Diamond — who was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican — had exhibited consistent bias against him in the case, including by misinterpreting witness testimony, making inconsistent credibility determinations, and reaching “baseless” conclusions about what happened.
The underlying matter centers on Dennis Johnson’s attempt to have his 2009 murder conviction overturned. Krasner’s office had once supported that effort, but tried to change course earlier this year after prosecutors discovered that the staffer who filed the brief backing Johnson’s position had made a series of mistakes.
After that discovery, those prosecutors and Krasner held a variety of discussions about what went wrong and how the office should move forward. And this summer, when Diamond called hearings to address similar questions, the prosecutors involved in the discussions with Krasner told the judge that the DA had acted in ways they viewed as inappropriate — including, they said, by considering a plan to fault a single staffer, and threatening “consequences” for those who didn’t follow his orders.
Diamond said some of the actions could amount to obstruction of justice or criminal conspiracy.
Krasner has said those characterizations were wrong, and that some of the prosecutors who spoke out against him were “legally incorrect” about what took place and had behaved in ways that were insubordinate.
Beyond the issues Diamond ruled on Wednesday, the case — and the merits of Johnson’s petition — remain pending.
