Top US justice department official says she is domestic abuse survivor

A top US justice department official revealed on Wednesday that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and was once arrested for an expunged offense, which has sparked calls for her resignation among rightwing politicians and commentators.

Kristen Clarke, who leads the justice department’s civil rights division, told CNN in a statement that she had been “subjected to years-long abuse and domestic violence at the hands of my ex-husband” nearly 20 years ago.

“This was a terrorizing and traumatizing period that I have sought to put behind me to promote my personal health, healing and wellbeing,” Clarke said. “The physical and emotional scars, the emotional abuse and exploitation, and the lying, are things that no woman or mother should ever have to endure.”

The revelation of Clarke’s 2006 arrest, which has since been removed from her record, prompted demands for her resignation on the right. Clarke’s critics accused her of lying during her 2021 confirmation process, when she was asked by Senator Tom Cotton about any past arrests.

Cotton, a Republican of Arkansas, asked in a questionnaire given to Clarke: “Since becoming a legal adult, have you ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person?” Clarke responded: “No.”

A number of rightwing commentators, including the New York Post editorial board, have insisted this week that Clarke must resign for withholding information from the senators who confirmed her.

“She told an unambiguous lie to Congress,” the board wrote in an editorial published on Thursday. “Was she thinking she’d never get caught, or that if she did, her political connections would protect her?”

Senator Mike Lee, a Republican of Utah, similarly lambasted Clarke, writing on X: “She lied under oath during her confirmation proceedings, and should resign.”

But in her statement to CNN, Clarke said she was not obliged to disclose the arrest because it had been expunged from her record.

“When given the option to speak about such traumatic incidents in my life, I have chosen not to,” Clarke wrote. “I didn’t believe during my confirmation process and I don’t believe now that I was obligated to share a fully expunged matter from my past.”

Other legal experts rallied to Clarke’s defense, echoing her argument and pillorying her critics for attacking an accomplished Black woman who had disclosed a painful episode from her personal life.

“The whole point of expungement is [that] the record no longer exists. This is wrong,” Joyce Vance, a University of Alabama law professor and former US attorney, wrote on X. “She’s a thoughtful [and] decent public servant. The misogyny [and] racism that underlie this attack on the victim of a serious crime is appalling.”

Clarke herself appears to be brushing off the attacks from her rightwing critics, giving no indication that she plans to resign from her post.

She told CNN: “As I have done at every stage of my career as a life-long public servant, I will continue working to ensure that we carry out our work in a way that centers the experiences and needs of crime victims.”