D.A. Krasner & His Favorite PAC Playing Shell Game With $$$

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

District Attorney Larry Krasner is playing a shell game with his favorite PAC. It's called laundering cash donations that are way above the legal limits.

Last year, the Real Justice PAC of San Francisco lavished more than $100,000 on the D.A.'s reelection committee in the form of cash, in-kind contributions and rent money. The only problem was that the city of Philadelphia's legal limit for annual donations from any PAC was only $12,600.

That created a legal problem for the city's top law enforcement officer and his favorite PAC, namely what to do with all that extra cash? On the latest filings from the Krasner for District Attorney committee, Krasner reported that he paid The Social Practice LLC of San Francisco $70,000 for "marketing services."

It's a real cozy relationship that Krasner's got going here. Both the Real Justice PAC and The Social Practice LLC have the same address: 3041 Mission St., San Francisco. And five leaders of The Social Practice, which bills itself on its official website as an "ideologically driven political consultancy," also happen to be listed on the PAC's website as team leaders of the Real Justice PAC. 

Rebecca "Becky" Bond and Zack Malitz, both of whom are co-founders of the Real Justice PAC, are also listed as co-founders of The Social Practice. Jin Ding, a member of "The Team" that runs Real Justice, is also listed as a partner at The Social Practice. Dan Rowe, another member of the team that runs Real Justice, is communications manager of The Social Practice. And Alexandria Sousa, another member of the team that runs Social Justice, is a senior strategist at The Social Practice. 

Everybody's playing on the same team. 

Meanwhile, the Real Justice PAC is advertising online to "Help Re-Elect Larry Krasner And Stand with Us For Transformational Justice." The ads seeking donations all the way up to $1,000 and more say that "Your contribution will be split evenly between Real Justice PAC - Unlimited and Larry Krasner."

So it's clear from their actions that Real Justice PAC and Larry Krasner's campaign committee are working hand in hand to get the D.A. reelected. And they don't give a damn about any federal, state or local laws that would place any legal restraints on their generosity.

That's why the city's Board of Ethics has been monitoring the "Lawrence Krasner For District Attorney" campaign committee, and the contributions they've been raking in from the Real Justice PAC. Because both the D.A.'s campaign committee and his favorite PAC are known offenders. 

Two years ago, the Board of Ethics finalized an agreement that called for both the Real Justice PAC and Krasner's campaign committee to fork over a total of $23,000 in fines and "disgorgements" [or forfeits] for breaking city election laws back in 2017, when Krasner first got elected D.A., with donations that were over and above the city's legal limits. 

J. Shane Creamer Jr., executive director of the city's Board of Ethics, could not be reached for comment on the latest doings of the Krasner campaign and Real Justice. 

As they have done for the past 20 months, D.A. Krasner and Jane Roh, his official spokesperson, did not respond to a request for comment.

Also not talking are the officers and leaders of the Real Justice PAC, and The Social Practice LLC; nobody at either enterprise responded to requests for comment.

With Krasner running for reelection in the May 18th Democratic primary, both the Real Justice PAC and the D.A.'s campaign committee have renewed their synergistic efforts. 

According to Real Justice's filings last year with the Federal Election Commission, the PAC listed as campaign contributions to Krasner a $25,000 donation made on April 15, 2020, and a $50,000 donation made on July 30, 2020. 

But in financial reports that Real Justice PAC filed with the city, and in a financial report filed by the Krasner committee with the state, both entities have only disclosed the $25,000 contribution. So the question was on which forms was Real Justice telling the truth? Was it with the city or was it with the feds?

On Feb. 19th, the same day Big Trial reported the discrepancies with Real Justice's contributions to the Krasner campaign, the Krasner campaign filed an amended report with the state, listing the additional $50,000 contribution from the Real Justice PAC.

And on Feb. 24th, the Real Justice PAC filed a report with the state, listing the $50,000 donation made on July 30, 2020 to the Krasner campaign, only they report it as a "contribution to non-campaign account."

That's a loophole in city campaign finance law that would enable Krasner to get around that $12,600 a-year limit on contributions from a PAC. Since Krasner didn't formally announce he was running for reelection until this February, Real Justice's contributions to the Krasner campaign last year fall under the classification of pre-candidacy donations.

That means any contribution Krasner receives over and above the $12,600 limit for a single year is supposed to be set aside in a special account, to be used for non-campaign expenses. That's opposed to any contribution over the legal limit that Krasner received while he was an official candidate. In that case, Krasner would have been required to return the excess contributions.

In its most recent report to the state, the Real Justice PAC stated that on March 24th, they received $14,750 from the Lawrence Krasner for District Attorney for "staff time and software."

Under expenditures, Real Justice reported paying Brandon Evans, who is Krasner's campaign manager, as well as the former manager of Mayor Kenney's reelection campaign, a total of $12,380.

The Lawrence Krasner for D.A. campaign also listed $421,486 in donations taken in from Jan. 1 to March 29th, bringing the total campaign treasury to $609,462.

Krasner's biggest contributors on this campaign cycle were listed as the District 1199C Political Action Fund of Philadelphia, which donated $3,000, and the Laborers District Council of Philadelphia, which donated $12,600.

Out of Krasner's most recent donations, more than 70% came from out of state. Krasner's donors included Rebecca Bond and Zack Malitz, both of whom are co-founders of Real Justice and The Social Practice, who donated a total of $6,100 between them to Krasner's reelection committee.

Krasner's opponent in the May 18th Democratic primary for D.A., Carlos Vega, reported taking in $335,374 in contributions, the vast majority of which were local donors, bringing his total war chest to $465,326. 

Vega's biggest contributors included the Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers local PAC Fund of Philadelphia, with $12,600, the FOP, with $12,600; the IUPAT DC 21 PAC of Philadelphia, with $12,600; The Sprinkler Fitters Local Union No. 692 POAC Fund, with $12,600; and the Pennsylvania FOP PAC, with $12,000.

So a month before the May 18th Democratic primary for D.A. the city's top law enforcement official continues to brazenly violate local campaign finance law. Wonder how long it will take for the Inquirer to get on this story?

UPDATE:

The answer is never. The Inquirer on Monday April 12th ran a story about the latest campaign finance reports for the race for D.A. And even though it's all spelled out in public records, the Inquirer didn't mention any of the games that Krasner is playing with campaign cash.

Such as the more than $100,000 he took in last year from the Real Justice PAC, which was far in excess of the legal limit of $12,600. Nor did the newspaper mention the $70,000 that Krasner just spent on "marketing services" from The Social Practice, which features the same set of characters from the Real Justice PAC. 

It's a pass-around that any objective observer would flag. But as far as the Inquirer is concerned, Progressive Larry Krasner can do no evil.