US Homeland Security’s David Clarke denies that he plagiarised parts of thesis, calls reporter a ‘sleaze bag’

The controversial Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke, who this week said he had been appointed an assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, has denied plagiarising portions of his master’s degree thesis.

CNN reported on Saturday that in “Making US security and privacy rights compatible”, a thesis submitted in 2013 at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, Clarke “failed to properly attribute his sources at least 47 times”.

On Twitter on Saturday night, Clarke responded with criticism of the CNN reporter, Andrew Kaczynski. “This @CNN hack @KFILE oppo research MO is to accuse plagiarism,” he wrote. “I’m next. Did it to Rand Paul, Monica Crowley et al.”

He added: “Guy is a sleaze bag. I’m on to him folks.”

In an email sent to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Clarke said: “Only someone with a political agenda would say this is plagiarism.” A spokeswoman for the sheriff told the Journal Sentinel that CNN was biased. In an email to the Associated Press on Sunday, the spokeswoman said: “The sheriff said to follow national media for his response to this smear.”

The spokeswoman also told the Journal Sentinel Clarke had followed the school’s system for completing academic papers.