Sheriff Clarke Calls Out CNN for 'Electronic Terrorism'

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said a CNN report that killed his chances of joining President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security is "electronic terrorism."

Last month, CNN political reporter Andrew Kaczynski reported Clarke had plagiarized in his 2013 master's thesis, failing to properly attribute his sources at least 47 times. That prompted Clarke to withdraw his name from consideration for the high-profile post of assistant secretary.

Kaczynski is "not accomplished. He doesn't need many skills besides the computer. He goes after writings, books, essays, dissertations, and just screams plagiarism. Anybody who has ever written extensively is vulnerable," Clarke told the Media Equality Project, a conservative media watchdog.

"This guy is a hired gun. That's why CNN brought him on. He's a defamation-of-character specialist. He's a purveyor in his smear tactics. You make the claim, you make the smear, and watch the person in his crosshairs squirm. He doesn't care if the truth comes out.

"It doesn't take much in this information age to assassinate by information. He goes after dissertations and papers. He screams plagiarism. . . . He uses fear and intimidation against his targets. It's electronic terrorism."

Clarke, a conservative, is the author of "Cop Under Fire: Moving Beyond Hashtags of Race, Crime and Politics for a Better America," written with Nancy French and published by Worthy.

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