Donald Trump’s appointment of Thomas E. Wheeler, who was Mike Pence’s former general counsel when he was governor of Indiana, to the position of acting head of the Civil Rights Division, is an affront to the concept of civil rights in our country. The head of the Civil Rights Division should be working to advance criminal justice reform and constitutional policy protecting people’s rights and combating discrimination. Wheeler devoted his career as an attorney doing just the opposite as he time and time again represented corporations and governmental entities in defending them against people’s civil rights claims. In March 2011, he went out of his way and wrote to Representative Dennis Bonnen of the Texas House of Representatives and offered advice for the writing of the Texas Voter ID Law, which of course was designed to make it tougher for minorities to vote. This is not the type of person who should be running the Civil Rights Division of our country. Since he spent the better part of his career as an attorney fighting against people’s civil rights complaints, he should disclose how much money he made in doing so. He is the last person on the planet that should now be leading the very office of our country that is supposed to be protecting the civil rights of our people. When Trump ran for president he said he was going to drain the swamp. Trump just infested the swamp by appointing Wheeler to this position.
Brian Vukadinovich, Wheatfield, Indiana
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