Carlos Vega Filing Libel Suit Against D.A. Krasner & Shaun King

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

In the campaign for Philly D.A., the gloves are officially off. 

And the increasingly hostile and overblown rhetoric emanating from the camp of the increasingly desperate incumbent, Larry Krasner, may ultimately come with a price tag. 

Carlos Vega, running for the Democratic nomination in the May 18th primary, yesterday filed notice of a libel and slander suit against D.A. Krasner's campaign committee, the Real Justice PAC of San Francisco PAC that is Krasner's biggest campaign contributor, and Shaun King, the PAC's co-founder.

The notice was filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court  on the day that Krasner and Vega competed in their only televised debate on NBC 10. At the debate, Krasner, looking as jumpy as Rodney Dangerfield, repeatedly called Vega a liar after just about everything the challenger said. And when the cameras went off, Krasner yelled at Vega to "grow up" before storming out of the studio and refusing to talk to reporters.

Maybe it was yesterday's notice of the libel suit that the D.A. was served with that set him off. In a press release, The Beasley Firm, which represents Vega, stated, "In the last week, Shaun King, through his social media platforms, and in coordination with Real Justice PAC and the Krasner campaign, has targeted maliciously false and misleading rhetoric at Mr. Vega to defame him in an effort to dissuade Philadelphians from voting for the change this city needs."

King began his online crusade by calling Vega a "super villain." And that was just the start of it.

"Almost every day Shaun King has published malicious and known falsehoods about me as the gasoline to direct his 4 million online followers to harass our supporters of color, my family, my children, and me," Vega said in the press release. "Shaun King has a history of these tactics."

"I've called on Larry Krasner to stop King’s incendiary lies, but he has not," Vega said. "So I have begun legal action against Larry Krasner's campaign, Shaun King, and Real Justice PAC. Voters deserve to know the truth. While my campaign continues to focus on ending the gun violence epidemic and rooting out the injustice in our system, Larry Krasner and Shaun King have resorted to actionable defamation, which has caused relentless online harassment and bullying."

Shaun King is co-founder of the Real Justice PAC which is Krasner's biggest campaign contributor. At the moment, King, Krasner and the Real Justice PAC are brazenly breaking the city's campaign finance laws. So maybe that's what emboldened them into thinking that in the last two weeks of this campaign, they can also get away with libel.

The city has a limit of $12,600 on annual donations from a PAC. But the Real Justice PAC last year lavished more than $100,000 on Krasner's reelection committee including $75,000 in cash, $29,450 in rent money, and in-kind contributions of $10,375 paid to Krasner’s campaign staffers. 

It's a subject that The Philadelphia Inquirer won't touch because they're in the bag for Larry Krasner. 

According to its website, the Real Justice PAC was founded to "fix our broken criminal justice system" by electing "reform" D.A.s across the country. The PAC has served as a cash cow for Larry Krasner and his two political campaigns. 

Since 2017, the Real Justice PAC has funneled more than $230,000 to Krasner, including $109,000 in cash. They've also paid $106,813 to Brandon Evans, the national political director at Real Justice. Evans previously served as Jim Kenney's campaign manager, and is also Krasner’s campaign manager. Since 2019, he's rented an office at a building Krasner owns at 1221 Locust Street. Real Justice has also funneled another more than $50,000 to Evans through another nonprofit. 

What complicates this cozy relationship is that when it comes to violating the city’s campaign finance laws, both Krasner and the Real Justice PAC are repeat offenders. Two years ago, the city’s Board of Ethics finalized an agreement that called for both the Real Justice PAC and Krasner's campaign committee to pay a total of $23,000 in fines and forfeitures for breaking city laws back in 2017, when Krasner first got elected D.A., with donations over and above the city's legal limits.

But while the money is rolling in from out of state contributors, Krasner has been feeling the heat for the city's out of control murder rate, which is directly attributable to Krasner's soft-on-crime policies. It's the reason the city's Democratic committee decided not to endorse Krasner for reelection.

Krasner is so radioactive because of the soaring murder rate that even our cowardly mayor, Jim Kenney, declined three times when asked if he was going to endorse Krasner for reelection.

The year Krasner was elected, 2017, the city had 315 murders. Last year, the city had 499 murders, the highest total in 30 years; that's a 58% increase in murders over Krasner’s first three years in office.

And over the first 95 days of 2021, the murder rate as of yesterday was already at 177, a 35% increase over last year. At this rate, the city will set an all-time record of more than 670 murders.

"The Krasner campaign cannot defend Larry Krasner’s record over the last four years," Louis Tumolo, Vega's lawyer, wrote in an email. 

"In recent weeks DA Krasner has become increasingly uncomfortable as Philadelphians fairly question his ability to reform the criminal justice system and keep our communities safe. Instead of addressing the historic epidemic of violence, DA Krasner and his out-of-town cohorts have resorted to baseless attacks on the character of Carlos Vega" who served for 35 years in the D.A.'s office, including 30 years as a homicide prosecutor. 

"The truth is this: Larry Krasner does not care about Philadelphians; he has resorted to shameful tactics in his bid for reelection as he pursues his national political aspirations," Tumolo wrote.

"For example, Shaun King, co-founder of The Real Justice PAC with Krasner’s campaign manager on the payroll, wrote 'They (the police) know that Carlos will NEVER hold them accountable. In his 35 corrupt years in that office, he didn’t hold a single cop accountable.'"

"This is false and Shaun King, DA Krasner’s campaign, and The Real Justice PAC know it," Tumolo wrote. "Why do they ignore Mr. Vega’s successful prosecution of, for example, Officer Ryan Shiver or homicide detective Ronald Dove? Is it because those prosecutions defeat their false narrative?"

At yesterday's debate, Vega set Krasner off by pointing out that he was the only lawyer on stage who had ever successfully prosecuted a police officer. Even though D.A. Krasner has gone after some 50 Philly cops, he's never won a conviction. 

"King also claims that Mr. Vega “framed and convicted” Anthony Wright," Tumolo wrote. "Why does Mr. King withhold from his readers that Mr. Vega was never involved in the conviction of Anthony Wright? Even The Innocence Project has acknowledged: (1) Mr. Vega did not convict Anthony Wright at his 1993 [trial]; and (2) it was the decision of elected District Attorney Seth Williams, not Mr. Vega, in 2016 to retry Anthony Wright for murder."

"These writings are shameful and maliciously false at their core," Tumolo wrote. "We have filed this lawsuit to expose the truth, not hide from it. Philadelphians deserve an honest election. Larry Krasner for DA, Shaun King, and The Real Justice PAC are on notice that the palpably false information they continue to feed voters will not be tolerated."

King, who is also a Black Lives Matter activist, has been dubbed "Talcum X" by critics who questioned his claimed status as supposedly being biracial, because both of King's biological parents are white. 

That led the resourceful King to claim that his mother had an affair with a black man who was his real father.

On April 26th, Vega sent out a fundraising email that objected to King's rhetoric.

"Apparently serving victims of crime and securing justice as a steadfast public servant for 35 years means I am a 'real life super villain' -- or that's according to out-of-state 'activist' Shaun King, who has spent his career profiting off of the trauma of black and brown people," Vega wrote.

"Shaun King, co-founder of the California based Real Justice PAC, who is the main financial backer of Krasner, actively targeted, harassed, bullied, and threatened my supporters," Vega wrote. "Clearly, Larry Krasner and Shaun King are two peas in a pod -- two fake progressives who lie with impunity on the backs of marginalized people."

On his part, King went online to return the fire, and ratchet up the rhetoric. 

"The most evil man in Philly just pulled a Donald Trump on me and Larry Krasner," King wrote. "He just filed a notice that he plans to sue us."

"It’s garbage," King wrote. "Hot garbage. And it’s coming from a man that is so afraid of his own shadow that when you tell him about himself he panics and sues you because the truth about his evil record is so ugly that he can hardly stand to have it said out loud. I don’t know how this guy lives with himself."

"This is what happens when a monster of a man, Carlos Vega, who worked in the single most corrupt division of the single most corrupt DA’s office in the nation for 35 years, without any accountability, without any media scrutiny, without anybody ever saying out loud how horrible he is, finally has somebody punch back for a change," King wrote. 

"So yeah, I’m standing by every single word I said about you, Carlos," King concluded. "You are a monster."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you would call hissing from a snake. It seems remarkably in chorus with Krasner, who at yesterday's debate, couldn't stop calling Vega a liar, while running as fast as he could from his own miserable record.

What does Krasner have to say in response to a libel suit that targets him? As they have for the past 21 months, both Krasner and Jane Roh, his official spokesperson who never speaks, declined to respond to a request for comment. 

Krasner and Vega, the two candidates for D.A., are already adversaries in court.

Vega filed an age discrimination lawsuit against Krasner in U.S. District Court, after Krasner fired Vega in January 2018, during his first day on the job, along with 30 other seasoned prosecutors. 

Now those two candidates are on opposite sides of a libel suit.

See you in court, Mr. Krasner. Please bring along a muzzle for your little attack dog, Shaun. 

And don't forget your checkbook.