Philly DA Larry Krasner is now providing some records to the state House committee investigating him
Last week legislators voted to hold him in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena to provide documents. Krasner has called the effort “dirty politics.”
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Monday that his office is partially complying with a subpoena issued by a legislative panel hunting for grounds to impeach him, though he continued to slam the process as “dirty politics in an election year.”
The development comes a week after the Pennsylvania House took the highly unusual step of voting to hold Krasner in contempt for refusing to comply with the subpoena, which requested his office’s policies on a variety of matters and its records on a criminal investigation into a former police officer. The vote was 162-38, with dozens of Democrats siding with the GOP.
Krasner, a Democrat, challenged the subpoena in Commonwealth Court earlier this month, and he’s derided the Republican-led House panel’s probe into his tenure as “undemocratic.” In a Monday letter to the chair of the committee, Krasner’s lawyers wrote that their objections to the probe stand.
But they shared information with the committee on policies that prosecutors in Krasner’s office follow, many of which were already public, including practices related to bail, probation, and parole, and reducing the jail population.
Lawyers also continued to take issue with an aspect of the subpoena that requested documents related to the prosecution of Ryan Pownall, a former police officer awaiting trial on murder charges. The request was in part for information related to grand jury proceedings, which are generally required under law to be kept secret.
» READ MORE: The Pa. House voted to hold Philly DA Larry Krasner in contempt for defying a subpoena
Krasner said his office shared the information on its procedures “to take away the bogus talking point that we have something to hide in terms of our policies.” He said lawyers provided “every policy that exists.”
Jason Gottesman, a spokesperson for House Republicans, confirmed the panel received “a number of documents” that it will review to determine whether they are responsive to the subpoena.
He also called on Krasner to “drop his lawsuit, recognize the legitimacy of the Select Committee, and work as a partner with state and local officials to keep Pennsylvanians safe and enforce our laws.”
The committee scheduled hearings to take place over two days next week in Philadelphia. Krasner said he’d testify if invited.
The Select Committee on Restoring Law and Order was formed in July to investigate Krasner’s office and its handling of rising crime rates in Philadelphia, and some of its backers — largely from outside Philadelphia — have said the work is a precursor to impeachment. The effort has coincided with a midterm election campaign during which some Republicans both statewide and nationally have tried to portray Democrats as soft on crime.
The group has been critical of Krasner, a reform-minded progressive, and have tied his policies to Philadelphia’s gun violence crisis. The district attorney has defended his office’s record and said his efforts to reform the criminal justice system have not caused a spike in shootings.
» READ MORE: Larry Krasner says a subpoena in the effort to impeach him is ‘illegal’ and ‘wholly illegitimate’
Flanked by supporters in his office during a news conference Monday, Krasner said any effort to investigate his office is political and “does not come from an actual concern for dealing with crime.”
“They don’t believe that we are causing crime and gun violence. They know better than that,” he said. “This is taking advantage of people’s pain, their suffering, their tragedy, their agony. This is taking advantage of that for the worst kind of cheap politics.”