White House May Tap Milwaukee Sheriff For Homeland Security Post

MILWAUKEE, WI — David Clarke Jr., Milwaukee County’s tough-talking, lightning rod sheriff, may be tapped by President Donald Trump for a job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Clarke, a rising star among law-and-order conservatives and a brash TV pundit, is expected to be appointed as assistant secretary at DHS’s Office of Partnership and Engagement, according to media reports.

Clarke, who stood in as a surrogate for Trump on the campaign trail and tore into the Black Lives Matter movement in a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention last summer, met with then President-elect Trump at Trump Tower in November but was passed over for higher-level positions. The position he’s being considered for does not require confirmation from the Senate, where deaths that have occurred in the Milwaukee County Jail that he oversees would surely raise questions.

The assistant secretary of the Office of Partnership and Engagement serves as the administration’s liaison to the law enforcement community. If appointed, Clarke would likely to be called on to speak at funerals of police officers killed in the line of duty and perform other ceremonial duties.

But Clarke’s Homeland Security appointment is “not a done deal yet,” a senior White House official told Politico. Three sources familiar with the administration’s planning confirmed that Clarke is being considered for the position.

At home in Milwaukee County, prosecutors are conducting an inquest to determine if Clarke should be charged in the death of inmate Terrill Thomas, a mentally ill inmate who spent seven days locked up in a solitary confinement cell with no running water. He lost 35 pounds over the course of a week, and on the eighth day of his confinement, corrections officers found him dead on his cell floor of profound dehydration, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

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Four people have died in Clarke’s jail since Thomas’ April 2016 death, including a newborn who died in July 2016. An inmate whose water broke while she was in confinement claims a corrections officer laughed off her request for medical attention.

Thomas’ death has been ruled a homicide, and prosecutors want to determine who authorized the water shut-off in the man’s cell.

“Prosecutors should look at who authorized or encouraged guards to operate the county jail like a medieval dungeon, and follow the evidence wherever it leads, even if it leads directly to Sheriff Clarke,” Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy West said, according to a WITI-TV report.

Clarke won’t be called as a witness in the inquest, but Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm told Wisconsin Public Radio that doesn’t suggest the sheriff is a target.

“I don’t think anybody should draw any conclusions,” Chisholm said. “This is really a fact-based investigation,and so, what you try to do is limit yourself to people who have direct knowledge of the incident itself.”

Clarke has distanced himself from the inmate’s death, telling the Associated Press after Thomas’ family filed a civil lawsuit that he doesn’t have intimate knowledge about the hundreds of inmates housed in his jail at any given time.

“I have nearly 1,000 inmates. I don’t know all their names but is this the guy who was in custody for shooting up the Potawatomi Casino causing one man to be hit by gunfire while in possession of a firearm by a career convicted felon?” Clarke told the Associated Press. “The media never reports that in stories about him. If that is him, then at least I know who you are talking about.”

As news filtered out that Clarke might be in line for a Homeland Security post, the sheriff was in speaking at a National Rifle Association leadership conference. Trump delivered the keynote address.

The NRA backed Clarke’s 2014 re-election bid, and would likely do so again if he decides to seek re-election. The outspoken sheriff has also been mentioned as an opponent to U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Madison Democrat, in the 2018 midterm elections.

SusanWalsh/AP Photo