The move to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is back in action this week, with Pennsylvania state Rep. Craig Williams announcing that the House managers in Krasner’s impeachment trial have filed a 100-page appeal in the state Supreme Court, accusing Mr. Krasner of criminal conduct.
In November, the state Senate voted to call Mr. Krasner to a trial to answer for seven articles of impeachment against him, which if supported could result in his removal from office.
Mr. Krasner appealed to the Commonwealth Court asking to have the articles set aside. After many delays, the court decided the articles of impeachment did not constitute misconduct in office.
“They relied principally on the idea that, in some of these articles, we cited ethics rules rather than criminal statutes, and they did nothing whatsoever to analyze the actual behavior that was alleged,” Mr. Williams, a former federal prosecutor told The Epoch Times in a phone interview. Mr. Williams, a Republican, is chairman of the House impeachment managers.
“The lower court determined that the articles improperly used the ethics rules as a basis for determining whether DA Krasner’s conduct was unlawful. We have argued that the very same conduct might have just as easily been alleged as crimes. The lower court did no analysis of the unlawful behavior itself,” Mr. Williams said in a statement on the matter.
Soros-Backed DA
Mr. Krasner first took office in 2018. His was one of several key district attorney campaigns that was funded in part by billionaire George Soros who supports leftist progressive policies.
In his office, Mr. Krasner has loosened responses to drug, gun, and prostitution crimes, and under his watch, homicide and other violent crimes have climbed in Philadelphia.
“Pennsylvania’s official oppression statute makes it a crime for a public official to knowingly and intentionally deprive another’s legal rights. The articles are replete with instances where DA Krasner used his office to do exactly that, be it police officers, family members of murder victims, or other crime victims. In fact, the many alleged instances of DA Krasner and his office lying to the courts constitute overt acts in furtherance of several instances of official oppression—a crime," Mr. Williams alleges.
The appeal focuses on the case of Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Pownall, for which courts have reprimanded Mr. Krasner and his office.
The case stems from a 2017 incident in which Mr. Pownall was involved in the deadly shooting of 32-year-old David Jones, who had been riding a dirt bike after a traffic stop. In 2018, Mr. Krasner charged Mr. Pownall with first-degree murder. In 2022, a Philadelphia judge dismissed all charges against Mr. Pownall.
“In the case of the Officer Pownall shooting, the district attorney’s office failed to provide the legal instruction for homicide and made an intentional, deliberate choice not to inform the grand jurors about the justification defense available to Officer Pownall, despite being aware of it,” Mr. Williams said.
“The trial court also found that the district attorney’s office 'demonstrated a lack of candor to the Court by misstating the law and providing [it] with incorrect case law' and was 'disingenuous with the Court when it asserted [for various reasons] that it had good cause to bypass the preliminary hearing,' resulting in prejudice to Officer Pownall and the violation of his due process rights.
“In addition, the District Attorney’s Office withheld from Officer Pownall its own expert report concluding that Officer Pownall’s use of deadly force was justified,” Mr. Williams added.
Mr. Krasner and his office knowingly made false statements to the courts, failed to disclose evidence in court, prejudiced the administration of justice, and neglected to provide legally required notice to victims of crime, Mr. Williams charges. All of these violate the criminal code.
The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Krasner’s office for comment but has yet to receive a response. In the past, Mr. Krasner and his supporters in the state House have said that he was voted into office twice, and removing him would disenfranchise voters who want his progressive policies..
“His response to whether or not he's allowed to behave in a way that he wants to as the district attorney is that he was elected,” Mr. Williams said of Mr. Kranser's actions. “I don't think that's the standard.
“The standard is clearly set out in the criminal statutes and in the ethical canons, and those are the standards by which we will hold him. And if he violates them, then we'll impeach him, try him, and remove him from office, and I'll leave it to the attorney general to decide whether or not there are other remedies. But there's no standard that says well, if you were elected, then you can't be tried or accused.”
