Biden DOJ Official Admits to Misleading Congress on Her Arrest Record
Kristen Clarke claims to be a sufferer of home violence and argues that she was obligated to reveal that info.
The civil rights chief of the U.S. Division of Justice has confessed to mendacity to Congress about her arrest historical past throughout her affirmation listening to three years in the past.
Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Legal professional Common for the Civil Rights Division on the DOJ, admitted Wednesday that she had been arrested in 2006 in relation to a home violence grievance however selected to not disclose that info throughout her 2021 Senate affirmation course of.
“Almost 2 many years in the past, I used to be subjected to years-long abuse and home violence by the hands of my ex-husband,” Ms. Clarke wrote in a press release to CNN.
“This was a terrorizing and traumatizing interval that I’ve sought to place behind me to advertise my private well being, therapeutic and well-being,” she continued. “The bodily and emotional scars, the emotional abuse and exploitation, and the mendacity are issues that no lady or mom ought to ever must endure.”
Throughout her affirmation listening to, Ms. Clarke was requested by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in a questionnaire if she had “ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime towards any individual.” She responded, “No.”
In Wednesday’s assertion, Ms. Clarke stated that the arrest had since been purged from her report, and thus asserting that she was not obligated to reveal it to Congress.
“When given the choice to discuss such traumatic incidents in my life, I’ve chosen to not,” she stated. “I didn’t imagine throughout my affirmation course of and I don’t imagine now that I used to be obligated to share a totally expunged matter from my previous.”
The White Home sometimes directs the FBI to conduct a confidential background investigation earlier than nominating a person to a judicial or government workplace. Based on the findings of non-partisan authorities watchdog American Accountability Basis, nonetheless, the FBI’s vetting effort didn’t seem to have coated the home violence calls that led to Ms. Clarke’s arrest.
Ms. Clarke’s ex-husband, Reginald Avery, alleged to the Basis in 2021 that Clarke “attacked him with a knife, deeply slicing his finger to the bone,” throughout a dispute on the night time of July 4, 2006, whereas they have been married and dwelling in Maryland. Mr. Avery additionally claimed that he had by no means as soon as been interviewed by the FBI.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has referred to as on Ms. Clarke to resign for mendacity below oath at her affirmation.
“Kristen Clarke is answerable for implementing civil rights legal guidelines. She enforces these legal guidelines aggressively towards anybody who sneezes close to an abortion clinic,” he stated. “And by no means towards those that vandalize church buildings.”
Ms. Clarke has indirectly addressed requires her resignation, as an alternative pledging to stay in her place and proceed her work.
“As I’ve finished at each stage of my profession as a lifelong public servant, I’ll proceed working to make sure that we feature out our work in a method that facilities the experiences and wishes of crime victims,” she stated in her assertion.