Sheriff David Clarke Says Plagiarism Scandal Risks Homeland Security Job

MILWAUKEE, WI — Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who last week said he had accepted a job as an undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Monday that allegations he plagiarized parts of his master’s thesis could cost him the appointment, but not his loyalty to President Trump.

In a report last weekend, CNN said Clarke failed at least 47 times to properly attribute statements in his 2013 thesis, “Making U.S. Security and Privacy Rights Compatible.” He wrote the thesis for a master’s degree in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Milwaukee Patch, or click here to find your local Wisconsin Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Clarke was quick to deny the plagiarism allegations, made by Andrew Kaczynski, the senior editor and founding member of CNN's KFile.

In an interview on Newsmax TV’s “The Joe Pags Show” Monday, Clarke called the CNN report a “political hit job” intended to cost him the appointment as assistant secretary at DHS’s Office of Partnership and Engagement. Though Clarke said last week he had taken the Homeland Security job, there has been no official announcement from the agency that the position was ever offered.

“It’s a political hit job by the Communist News Network, CNN, and this hack Andy Kaczynski, this college dropout, who just goes out there and smears people, throws stuff up against the wall and then hopefully some of it will stick to damage the person politically,” Clarke said on the program.

The sheriff, who has been linked to far-right conspiracy theorist groups and has faced a huge backlash over a string of deaths in the Milwaukee County Jail he oversees, said Trump “has to do what’s in the best interests of his administration.”

“They’ve cut people loose before,” he said. “I don’t know why. So, time will tell, but I know that he values loyalty, and you know he’s smart enough. President Trump knows what’s going on here with me. He knows fully well, as does [Homeland Security Secretary] John Kelly.

“This is just an attempt to undermine me and to undermine the confidence that they have in me as well,” Clarke said.

Clarke, a visible surrogate for Trump during the campaign, said he won’t “abandon” the president even if he doesn’t get the job as the administration’s liaison to the law enforcement community. The job doesn’t require Senate confirmation, but Clarke’s predilection for saying exactly what he thinks — whether it’s calling his critics “snowflakes” or accusing the Black Lives Matter movement of colluding with ISIS — could cause problems for Trump and Kelly.

“... The left needs to know this today,” Clarke said. “I will never abandon this guy, regardless of what he or Secretary Kelly decide … and I’m going to fight like hell to continue to see that he stays there and that he’s successful in making America great again.”

See Also:

• Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, Aligned With Far-Right Conspiracy Theorists, Tapped For Homeland Security Post: Reports
• Controversial Milwaukee Sheriff Plagiarized Thesis: Report
• Milwaukee Man Detained After Shaking His Head At Sheriff

Though the appointment appears in limbo, U.S. Marshal Kevin Carr said this week that he wants to replace Clarke as Milwaukee County sheriff, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Carr was a former top aide to Clarke prior to his 2010 appointment by President Obama as the U.S. marshal for eastern Wisconsin.

“Naturally, after 30 years with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office and approximately 38 years in law enforcement, I do have an interest in continuing my public service by being appointed to the Sheriff's position by Governor Walker," Carr told the Journal Sentinel in an email. “I would consider it an honor and a privilege to respectfully serve all of the people in Milwaukee County in that capacity.”

If Clarke is appointed to the Homeland Security job, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will name a replacement to serve until the position can be filled in the 2018 election.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images