The Justice Department’s Kristen Clarke confirmed on Wednesday that she did not disclose an arrest and expungement during her nomination to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, alleging that she was a victim of domestic abuse.
The Daily Signal reported Tuesday evening that Clarke, who testified in 2021 to senators that she had never been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime, was involved in a violent domestic dispute with her now ex-husband, one in which he alleged that she sliced his finger to the bone with a knife.
The Daily Signal has repeatedly reached out to Clarke about the incident since February with no response, though the DOJ acknowledged receipt.
In a statement to CNN, she addressed the matter, saying she was not required to disclose the expungement. She also told CNN that she was “subjected to years-long abuse and domestic violence at the hands of [her] ex-husband.”
“This was a terrorizing and traumatizing period that I have sought to put behind me to promote my personal health, healing and well-being. 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,” Clarke continued.
“When given the option to speak about such traumatic incidents in my life, I have chosen not to,” Clarke added. “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.”
Clarke has not responded to requests for comment from The Daily Signal. Her ex-husband, Reginald Avery, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNN’s report did not include Avery’s allegations that Clarke sliced his finger with a knife on the night of July 4, 2006. The CNN report also does not link to The Daily Signal’s reporting.
“I was seeing another woman,” Avery shared in a May 2021 text message exchange with the American Accountability Foundation’s Tom Jones. “She was angry. Attacked me with a knife. I instinctively grabbed it. As I said earlier, I’m not blameless.”
“That’s the story,” Avery insisted. “That’s what happened. She went to jail.”
Prince George’s County Police Department records show that the department was called on nine different occasions by someone at Avery’s and Clarke’s Upper Marlboro, Maryland, household between May 2003 and December 2007.
Seven of those calls were for a “threat” or some type of domestic violence, but most were cleared without a report. The July 4, 2006, call was made by “Mr. Reginald” (Avery’s first name) and accompanied by a 760 code, according to a mainframe print-out from Prince George’s County computer-aided dispatch system obtained by The Daily Signal. That 760 code is the department’s clearance code for “arrest,” the Prince George County Police Department confirmed. The DOJ official’s ex-husband also shared with Jones that on the night of the incident, he called 911 due to his injury and the “cops came because [his] finger was cut off.” (Avery clarified to The Daily Signal that the finger was sliced to the bone, not cut off.) Police allegedly decided to arrest Clarke, and Avery said he went to the emergency room in Bowie, Maryland, for the injury. He does not have photos of the injury.
During her nomination, Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton asked 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,” according to responses she submitted to the Senate under oath in a document called “Questions for the Record.”
On Tuesday evening, Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee called for Clarke’s resignation.
“Kristen Clarke is in charge of enforcing civil rights laws,” Lee said in a statement posted to X. “She enforces those laws aggressively against anyone who sneezes near an abortion clinic. And not at all against those who vandalize churches. She lied under oath during her confirmation proceedings, and should resign.”
“She lied under oath to mask her arrest for committing a violent crime, yet she zealously prosecutes peaceful pro-life protesters,” the senator added.