President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has expressed regret for believing actor Jussie Smollett’s claims he was a hate crime victim after being pressed on the issue by senators reviewing her qualifications.
Kristen Clarke publicly backed Smollett after he claimed in 2019 he was targeted by two supporters of then-President Donald Trump for being black and gay. But the Empire star was later charged for staging the crime after two of his friends, who are also black, alleged he paid them $3,500 to pour bleach on him and put a rope around his neck to help him negotiate a pay raise.
“Like many others, I fell for Mr. Smollett’s hoax and in retrospect I regret having made that statement,” Clarke wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Hoaxes distract attention away from the real incidents of hate crimes which are a growing threat in our country.”
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Clarke made the admission in a committee questionnaire sent to lawmakers last week. The document was first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
At the time, Clarke also criticized Chicago police for their handling of the Smollett investigation after officers asked for his cellphone data.
“This is NOT how you treat survivors of a hate crime. Stop demonizing survivors and casting doubt on their claims if you want communities to trust that you will take #HateCrime seriously,” she tweeted.
In the questionnaire, Clarke also expressed regret for remarks she made about Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a centrist Democrat and centrist Republican. Clarke will need their votes to be confirmed by the chamber.
Clarke, then with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, dismissed Manchin’s praise of Martin Luther King Jr. as “hollow words” after he confirmed Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions. She went on to call Murkowski’s decision to confirm Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett as “shameful.”
Biden urged senators to confirm Clarke last month during a speech after former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, a black man.
“I have also nominated two key Justice Department nominees, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, who are eminently qualified, highly respected lawyers who have spent their entire careers fighting to advance racial equity and justice,” he said at the White House.
He added, “Vanita and Kristen have the experience and the skill necessary to advance our administration’s priorities to root out unconstitutional policing and reform our criminal justice system, and they deserve to be confirmed.”
Gupta, whom Biden tapped to become the Justice Department’s No. 3, was confirmed last month in a tight 51-49 vote after conservative Judicial Crisis Network spent almost $1 million opposing her nomination. GOP concerns centered on Gupta’s self-described “harsh rhetoric” toward Republicans in her role as head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
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Gupta is the Justice Department’s first minority woman confirmed as associate attorney general.
