Philly DA Larry Krasner expects an impeachment vote as early as next week

HARRISBURG — Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner expects to face an impeachment vote in the Pennsylvania House as early as next week, a move he has repeatedly decried as a political stunt that could come just weeks before the midterm election.

Standing on the steps of the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Krasner on Friday hosted a spirited news conference at 9 a.m. — the time he had been asked to testify behind closed doors before the Republican-led committee searching for grounds to impeach him.

Krasner, a reform-oriented Democrat, said he offered to testify privately if he could be given a recording. He said the committee declined, and he submitted a written statement to the committee Friday.

“This is an effort to impeach someone for political purposes who has done nothing corrupt and nothing illegal because they want to erase Philadelphia’s votes,” he said. “They want to impeach our ideas.”

Jason Gottesman, a spokesperson for House Republicans, said Krasner refused a “goodwill invitation” from the committee investigating his office, a move he described as “desperate tactics by a failed politician.”

“It’s a slap in the face to the people that Larry Krasner’s office should be protecting that he used time and resources from his office to come here today for a media stunt,” Gottesman said.

The clash foreshadows the high stakes of the looming impeachment vote. Such a move would likely draw attention to Krasner and his office’s handling of violent crime just as the nation prepares for a midterm election that Republicans have increasingly tried to make about rising rates of gun violence in cities.

It also comes amid criticism this week of how Krasner’s office handled two high-profile cases. A man accused of participating in a shooting of five teens outside of Roxborough High School was free on bail at the time of the shooting. He was convicted a month earlier for crashing into a pregnant woman and killing her unborn child while drag racing in 2020.

After Yaaseen Bivins was found guilty in that case in August, prosecutors did not ask the judge to revoke his bail, allowing him to walk out of the courtroom to await his October sentencing. Police say he and four others fired 64 shots at a group of kids after their football scrimmage in September, killing a 14-year-old and wounding four other teens.

On Thursday, a man Krasner’s office had helped to exonerate of a 2012 murder was named a suspect in an unrelated homicide: the September shooting death of Charles “Chali Khan” Gossett, a producer, director, and community advocate. News that Jahmir Harris, 32, was wanted in that slaying upset the family of Louis Porter, the victim of the 2012 killing, who faulted prosecutors for their work in freeing Harris — which the judge at the time also criticized.

» READ MORE: Philly DA Larry Krasner asked to address his impeachment committee in public. The panel said no.

Krasner said his office stands by what it believed at the time of the exoneration: Harris was “likely innocent” and that key evidence linking another suspect to the killing was improperly withheld from his trial lawyers. Krasner said his prosecutors “intend to bring him to justice on that second case.”

And Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has heightened her complaints in recent weeks about what she has described as little accountability for people who commit crimes.

“We are tired of arresting the same suspects over and over again, only to see them right back out on the street to continue and sometimes escalate their criminal ways,” Outlaw said last week after three Philadelphia SWAT officers were injured in a shooting.

The Select Committee on Restoring Law and Order, which was formed in July and is led by Republicans, has not said when it intends to vote or what it intends to vote on. Impeaching Krasner would require a simple majority in the House, which is controlled by the GOP. The state Senate would hold a trial, and a conviction would require a two-thirds vote.

Last month, the Select Committee hosted two days of hearings in Philadelphia, which included testimony from mothers of homicide victims. The hearing also featured an analyst who studied gun-possession cases, which have increasingly failed to reach convictions in Philadelphia during Krasner’s tenure.

Illegal gun cases have been a frequent topic of disagreement between some officials in Philadelphia as shootings have spiked in the city over the past two years. The DA has defended his office’s record, saying convictions on those cases have declined for reasons largely out of his control, including no-show witnesses, backlogged courts, and changing case law on vehicle searches.

Since the hearing, Krasner has been wrangling with the committee over providing testimony. He first asked to address the committee in public. The panel said no without explanation.

Then, Krasner said, he agreed to testify in private, as long as the meeting would be recorded and he would be given a copy of the recording. He said the panel again declined.

Krasner submitted a lengthy written statement to the committee late Friday defending his office’s handling of violent crime, detailing its programming for victims, and criticizing the committee’s approach.

“I hope that one day we can have a real conversation about the prosecution of crime and public safety. We have much work to do,” he wrote. “But we can only do it when you are not seeking political points right before an election.”

The Select Committee has largely balked at Krasner’s attempts to testify publicly and has characterized his efforts as trying to dictate the process of a committee investigating him.

Krasner filed a petition last month in Commonwealth Court challenging the committee’s validity. That remains pending.