Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke admitted that she didn't tell the full truth about being arrested during testimony during her 2021 senate confirmation hearing, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Clarke, who heads the Justice Department's civil rights division, explained she did not reveal her 2006 arrest because it had been expunged from her record.
During her senate confirmation hearing, Clarke was asked by Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, "Since becoming a legal adult, have you ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person?" to which Clarke responded, "No."
Reporting from the Daily Signal on Tuesday, which revealed she was arrested in Maryland in relation to a 2006 domestic violence incident with her ex-husband, Reginald Avery.
According to the report, which cited court documents and text messages, Avery claimed his finger was "sliced to the bone" after his ex-wife allegedly wielded a knife against him after he confessed he was cheating on her.
Charges against Clarke were eventually dropped and a year later she filed paperwork that would expunge the arrest from her record, which she addressed in a statement on Wednesday.
"Nearly 2 decades ago, I was subjected to years-long abuse and domestic violence at the hands of my ex-husband," Clarke said in a statement to CNN.
"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 DOJ official continued. "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."
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Clarke said that because the arrest was wiped from her record, she wasn't required to disclose the incident in her confirmation hearing.
"When given the option to speak about such traumatic incidents in my life, I have chosen not to. 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."
Despite calls from at least one Republican lawmaker that Clarke step down over lying in her testimony, the Assistant Attorney General made it clear that she has no intention of doing so.
"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," Clarke said.
