HARRISBURG, Pa. — A former federal prosecutor who led sweeping corruption investigations in Allentown and Reading mentioned Wednesday that he's working for Pennsylvania legal professional basic, changing into the second Democrat to hunt the workplace that may change into vacant after subsequent yr’s election.

Joe Khan, 47, not too long ago left his job because the solicitor for Bucks County earlier than asserting that he's looking for the state’s prime regulation enforcement workplace.

During his time as solicitor, he defended the county’s election administration towards Republican makes an attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump within the 2020 election within the presidential battleground state.

He additionally sued social media firms, accusing them of fueling a youth psychological well being disaster, and helped consolidate assist among the many county’s municipalities for a plan to distribute cash from the state’s settlement with opioid makers and distributors.

“The defense of the right to vote against Donald Trump and his goons is absolutely the one I’m most proud of,” Khan mentioned.

Before that, Khan was prosecutor for the federal authorities for a decade and the town of Philadelphia for six years.

As an assistant U.S. legal professional, Khan led a pay-to-play corruption investigation into metropolis halls in Allentown and Reading that netted greater than a half-dozen responsible pleas and, after Khan left, convictions of the cities’ mayors.

He ran for metropolis district legal professional in 2017, dropping within the Democratic main.

Another Democrat, former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, introduced his candidacy final week.

Khan, of Doylestown, acquired his regulation diploma from the University of Chicago. The Philadelphia native has a brother serving within the state House of Representatives and began a political motion committee devoted to serving to candidates who - like him - are the youngsters of immigrants. Khan’s father, an engineer, immigrated from Pakistan.

The legal professional basic’s workplace has a funds of about $120 million yearly and performs a vital function in arresting drug traffickers, combating gun trafficking, defending state legal guidelines in courtroom and defending shoppers from predatory practices.

The workplace helped lead state attorneys basic in settlement talks with pharmaceutical distributors and producers over the opioid disaster and performed a central function in defending the integrity of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election towards repeated makes an attempt to overturn it in state and federal courts by Trump’s marketing campaign and Republican allies.

Gov. Josh Shapiro stepped down as legal professional basic in January when he was sworn in as governor. He appointed his prime deputy, Michelle Henry, to complete the final two years of his time period as legal professional basic.

Henry, a former Bucks County prosecutor, has mentioned she doesn't plan to run for the workplace in 2024.

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