Sen. Cotton, others demand AG Garland fire Assistant AG for committing perjury, lying about being ARRESTED

WASHINGTON, DC - During her Senate confirmation hearings, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke was asked specifically if she had “ever been arrested or accused of committing a violent crime against any person," a question posed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Clarke replied, “No.” However, it was later discovered that that was not entirely truthful. 

Now, Cotton and nine of his colleagues are demanding that Attorney General Merrick Garland immediately fire Clarke for committing perjury during her confirmation hearings, Breitbart News reports. 

In a letter exclusively obtained by Breitbart, the nine lawmakers are calling “for Clarke’s immediate termination and removal from office” after it was revealed she lied under oath during her 2021 confirmation hearings. 

The letter was signed by Senators LIndsey Graham (R-SC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), MIke Lee (R-Utah), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Kennedy (R-LA), and John Cornyn (R-Texas). 

“During her nomination to her current role, Ms. Clarke was asked if she had ‘ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person,’” the letter reads. “Ms. Clarke was unequivocal, responding under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee, ‘No.’” 

The letter notes, “Ms. Clarke has now admitted that she was arrested in 2006 for attacking and injuring someone with a knife. It has also recently come to light that, shortly before the full Senate voted on her nomination, Ms. Clarke and her publicist contacted the man she attacked in an attempt to cover up her false testimony.” 

In May, Clarke exclusively told Democrat-friendly media outlet CNN in an exclusive statement that she had been arrested, but argued that since the arrest was later expunged, she was not obligated to disclose that fact to the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

CNN’s report said, “Clarke acknowledged that she was arrested in heer statement on Wednesday but said the arrest was expunged–meaning it was removed from her record and no longer exists–and that she wasn’t required to disclose it.” 

Breitbart noted that an expungement is not a pardon, but rather a civil action. Records that are expunged are “destroyed or sealed,” according to Black’s Law Dictionary. That serves to block public access or verifying their existence. Breitbart noted there are a number of justifications for expungement by a judge. 

Clarke’s explanation does not sit well with Cotton and the other Republican lawmakers, noting that despite what occurred after she was arrested, Clarke lied under oath about being arrested, which amounts to perjury. 

“Lying to Congress under oath is a felony,” Cotton wrote. 

The Arkansas senator then used Garland’s own words before the Senate Judiciary Committee against him in trying to press Garland for Clarke’s dismissal. 

“The last time you were before the Senate Judiciary Committee, you said, ‘The integrity of our legal system is premised on adherence to the rule of law. In order to have confidence in our Department and in everything that we do.’ Ms. Clarke does not meet this standard and must be immediately terminated.” 

In June, the Republican-led House of Representatives held Garland in contempt for refusing to comply with Congressional subpoenas related to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview of Joe Biden. While a transcript of the interview was released, the actual recording has been withheld and based on a request from Garland to Biden, is being denied due to executive privilege. 

In an op-ed during Clarke’s confirmation hearings, the Washington Examiner called on the Senate to reject Clarke’s nomination. The outlet addressed Clarke’s “animus against the police,” with a “long history of advocacy for, or association with, black radicals and black anti-Semites and of opposing the prosecution of black vote-fraudsters. 

Clarke was also accused of writing “racist collegiate writings” which she claimed were satire, although the Examiner said “the evidence strongly suggests otherwise.” Sen. Ted Cruz was told by Clarke that an opinion piece she wrote was supposed to “oppose the defunding of police,” however in the text of her column, she wrote, “I advocate for defunding policing operations that have made African Americans more vulnerable to police violence and contributed to mass incarceration, while investing more in programs and policies that address critical community needs.” 

Clarke also spoke at a conference where black radicals praised a number of cop-killers, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, who executed Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in cold blood in 1981. Not only did she participate, but she was a moderator of a panel that included a Abu-Jamal advocate. 

She also told the Senate that she had never served alongside poet Amiri Baraka, a Marxist, anti-Semitic idealogue on the staff of a journal on black studies. That was a lie, as she and Baraka served as an “assistant editor” and a “contributing editor” for eight issues. 

Clarke specifically recommended the journal publish an essay by Baraka that claimed Abu-Jamal was a “lynch victim” and alleged the Ku Klux Klan has morphed into “the police, with the blue uniforms replacing the sheets and hoods.” 

It should be noted that Clarke oversees police departments put under “consent decrees,” where they are overseen by the Department of Justice for having alleged cultures of committing systemic civil rights violations. Talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house.