Last week, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke announced that he was taking a job in the Trump administration, serving in the Department of Homeland Security in its Office of Partnership and Engagement.
While the job is seen as a major career promotion for the vocal supporter of President Trump, just days later Sheriff Clarke was accused of plagiarizing large portions of his 2013 master’s thesis on homeland security.
Here are the accusations, from CNN:
In all instances reviewed by CNN’s KFile, Clarke lifts language from sources and credits them with a footnote, but does not indicate with quotation marks that he is taking the words verbatim.
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Sources Clarke plagiarized include a 2002 ACLU report about “The Government’s Demand for New and Unnecessary Powers After September 11,” a 2003 ACLU report critical of the FBI’s records-collection practices, a 2007 ACLU report on “fusion centers,” and a 2011 ACLU report on the need to overhaul secrecy laws.
Other sources Clarke lifted words from include: the 9/11 Commission Report, a 2011 article in the Homeland Security Affairs journal, the Pew Research Center, a 2012 report by the Constitution Project, a 2003 report by the US General Accounting Office, a 2011 Brennan Center report, a 2013 Washington Post article about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Comparative Homeland Security: Global Lessons, a textbook by Nadav Morag, and Safe Cities Project, a research paper published by the Manhattan Institute.
Sheriff Clarke has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and went after the liberal media to defend himself:
Ample evidence of my previous tweet on @CNN political hack @KFILE. Guy is a sleaze bag. I’m on to him folks. https://t.co/D1kV8kg80G
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) May 20, 2017
Clarke further denied the allegations, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “only someone with a political agenda would say this is plagiarism.”
From The Washington Post:
Fran McLaughlin, Clarke’s public information officer at the sheriff’s department, told the newspaper that CNN has an agenda and a bias. She said the school has a system for doing papers and Clarke followed it.
But on Sunday, the Naval Postgraduate School confirmed that it’s reviewing the allegations. It removed his thesis from its online archive over the weekend, Lt. Cmdr. Clint Phillips, a school spokesman, told the Associated Press.
If the plagiarism allegations against Clarke are indeed true, it could seriously damage his future in the Trump administration. Former Fox News contributor Monica Crowley was forced to step down from a position with the National Security Council after it was revealed she had plagiarized sections of her book.
Despite Clarke’s insistence that the allegations are false, public pressure may consume him and become a distraction for the Trump administration. Hopefully Sheriff Clarke will be able the weather the storm and start his new job with DHS. America needs more tough patriots like him to keep us safe.
Do you believe that the allegations against Sheriff Clarke are true or just a political hit job? Share your thoughts below!