ACLU calls for inquiry into Alaska official who wrote racist and antisemitic tweets
The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska (ACLU) has called for “an investigation and audit” of the case record of a senior Alaskan legal official revealed by the Guardian to be operating a far-right Deseret nationalist, or “DezNat”, Twitter account under the pseudonym JReubenCIark.
In a statement to the Guardian in response to revelations that tweets from the account were antisemitic, racist, homophobic and advocated violence, the state ACLU spokesperson, Megan Edge, said the work of assistant attorney general Matthias Cicotte needed to be closely examined.
Related: Revealed: assistant attorney general in Alaska posted racist and antisemitic tweets
Cicotte works as lead corrections counsel in the Alaska department of law (DoL). In the DoL his duties include representing the state in cases where incarcerated people appealed their incarceration, their sentences, or their treatment in prison.
Edge said Cicotte’s tweets were “horrific and bigoted” and included some “aimed directly at incarceration and criminal prosecution”.
Edge pointed out that Cicotte acted for the state against people who are incarcerated, a population which is “disproportionately people of color and is subject to some of the most oppressive and inhumane living conditions tolerated by our government”.
Edge called for the investigation to be “transparent and timely, as we cannot afford a government that operates under a cloak of secrecy”.
Deseret nationalists, or DezNats, are a loose association of rightwing Mormons. Some who identify with the movement wish to recreate Deseret, the region of the western US which Mormons sought to have admitted to the union, and effectively ruled between 1862 and 1870. Some DezNats advocate the creation of a theocratic secessionist Mormon state, and some have proposed it be a white ethnostate.
Other groups have joined in the condemnation.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the US’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, said Cicotte should be removed from office. “If this official did indeed make these racist, bigoted and violent statements, the State of Alaska should immediately terminate him,” said Cair’s government affairs director, Robert McCaw. “Justice is threatened by the presence of such appalling racism and bigotry anywhere near the judiciary system.”
The Alaska Democrats, meanwhile, retweeted a link to the Guardian’s story with the comment: “This is appalling.”
While Cicotte has still made no public comment, the Guardian’s reporting, and his participation in far-right circles was highlighted in several newspapers in Alaska and Utah, including the LDS-affiliated Deseret News.
On Wednesday, Alaska’s deputy attorney general, Cori Mills, wrote in a statement to the Guardian: “The department of law takes the allegations raised here seriously, and we uphold the dignity and respect of all individuals and ask that all of our employees do the same.”
Mills added that the DoL was “gathering information and conducting a review”.
A source close to the matter told the Guardian that Cicotte’s case load had now been removed as the investigation continued.
