Campaign finance filings show Larry Krasner’s campaign made a $3,500 donation in 2021 to the Democratic Party’s 52nd Ward in Philadelphia, whose long-serving leader recently stepped down after revelations about his recent convictions of sexual abuse against a minor became a flashpoint in this year’s race for district attorney.

The four-year old donation is important because it appears to undermine the claims by both Krasner and now-former ward leader Stephen Jones, who said in response to controversy that there was virtually no relationship between the two men. 

In February, a Philadelphia jury convicted Jones, 79, on two felony charges of sex assault against someone under the age of thirteen for an incident dating to 2023.

On Saturday, Krasner attended an “endorsement breakfast” at the 52nd Ward, and video emerged online showing Jones and Krasner at the same event, providing the odd juxtaposition of a sex-abuse convict organizing a petition drive with the district attorney whose office handled his prosecution present. Other municipal candidates were in attendance as well.

The meeting quickly became a social media firestorm on X. Broad + Liberty published a report on Sunday characterizing the meeting as a de facto endorsement from Jones to Krasner, based on the descriptions of the event by sources, as well as the claims from Krasner’s opponent who said his campaign was not invited to the breakfast. 

Both Krasner and Jones have denied the idea of any endorsement, implied or otherwise, and as the controversy grew, both claimed to have no relationship or friendship between them — or if some link between them did exist, it was so thin or tenuous as to be nonexistent.

The filing for the 52nd Ward shows Krasner’s campaign donated the $3,500 on May 9, 2021. Jones was still ward leader at that time. The same filing shows the ward immediately spent nearly the same amount on get-out-the-vote activities for the May 18th primary.

Using Krasner’s filing from that year for the same reporting cycle, his campaign only gave to four of the 66 wards across the city:

• $6,000 to the 44th
• $3,500 to the 52nd
• $2,000 to the 3rd
• $1,000 to the 9th

All of those wards are in the western edges of the city. The filing from the previous cycle also shows Krasner giving to the 1st, 5th, and “New 42nd” wards.

When the original controversy erupted on Sunday, the Krasner campaign responded by putting distance between the two.

“The campaign was totally unaware at the time that Steve Jones, who had been serving as ward leader, has been convicted of aggravated indecent assault where the complainant was under the age of 13, as well as related offenses,” spokesman Anthony Campisi said in a prepared statement. “Jones has a common last name, and the case is being handled by experienced prosecutors in the office. It is our understanding that none of the other candidates or party officials present were aware of Jones’ criminal history.”

Jones resigned as ward leader sometime Sunday, according to the remainder of Campisi’s statement. His sentencing is set for May — two days after the municipal primary.

One day after Broad + Liberty’s story was originally published, Jones left a voicemail for this reporter, again denying that there had been any endorsement. 

“I never talked to the DA. Whoever it was that called me, I invited them to the ward. He had new petitions. We did not do any endorsements or anything,” Jones said.

“I never talked to Mr. Krasner about anything. He didn’t even know who I was until he got there,” Jones also said.

When contacted for comment on the issue of the campaign contributions, Campisi accused Broad + Liberty of unfairly sensationalizing the story.

“Look, I’m genuinely disappointed that you’re trying to weaponize the experience of a victim, who has gone through a lot, in pursuit of such a non-story — even as you fail to issue a correction on your previous, incorrect article,” Campisi said.

“Larry barely knows Mr. Jones. His campaign has made similar contributions to wards across the city. These types of contributions are a common practice from candidates at every level.”

“I’d also like to point out that this contribution occurred before Mr. Jones’ arrest and successful prosecution by the D.A.’s Office,” he continued.

“And I want to again note that Broad + Liberty continues to have a story on its website that inaccurately says that Larry received the endorsement of Mr. Jones during this election cycle. He did not. And it’s disappointing that you’ve repeatedly ignored my request that you issue a correction.”

(Note: A minor edit to Campisi’s quote was made for reasons of style. None of his words, or their sequence, was altered. Broad + Liberty supplied readers with Campisi’s full statement; nothing was omitted.)

Calls to Jones on Tuesday about the campaign finance filing were not returned.

The entire controversy blew up just days after Krasner officially announced his candidacy for re-election.In the May primary, Krasner will face former Philadelphia municipal judge Pat Dugan, who hit Krasner over the breakfast meeting.

“Larry Krasner stood smiling beside a convicted child predator — a man his own Senior Prosecutors had been trying in court since September 2023. Did he not recognize him? The DA in charge of every major case in this city failed to notice a politically connected sex offender standing next to him? Or did he know exactly who he was and choose to stand there anyway? Either answer should terrify you,” a statement from the Dugan campaign read.

Meanwhile, the controversy has grown in other dimensions.

Ernest Owens, a journalist and president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists posted on X that several judges recused themselves from the Jones case because of his political connections.

Although the Jones docket does not dispositively prove Owens’s post, it does show the case had at least six different judges, a number that includes one “trial commissioner.”

Todd Shepherd is Broad + Liberty’s chief investigative reporter. Send him tips at tshepherd@broadandliberty.com, or use his encrypted email at shepherdreports@protonmail.com. @shepherdreports