Milwaukee’s assistant attorney, who last week supported Russian President Vladimir Putin on an appearance on Russia Today TV and previously worked for anti-Muslim “hate groups,” is out of a job.
City attorney Tearman Spencer’s termination notice to the city’s Department of Employee Relations on Monday cited only “Job performance. Poor fit.” as a reason to terminate Jennifer DeMaster’s employment with the office. The message provided no additional details and neither DeMaster nor Spencer immediately responded to requests for comment Monday.
Assistant attorney Nicholas Zales also had terminated his employment at the office Monday, according to Makda Fessahaye, director of the Department of Employee Relations. That post only mentions “job performance” as the reason.
A voicemail left at a phone number listed as associated with Zales and a LinkedIn message were not returned immediately.
Both were on probation, Fessahaye said.
“I am not aware of anyone else who has been fired during my probationary period during the city attorney’s probation,” said Fessahaye, who was confirmed to her position in January 2021.
Spencer hired DeMaster and Zales after a major exodus of attorneys from his office, with some calling a “toxic work environment” among the relatively new city attorney. Spencer was elected in April 2020.
The two lawyers were hired last year to work in the litigation department, which was struggling to meet court deadlines due to staff shortages. The department typically hears cases in state and federal courts.
While serving at the city, DeMaster earned $71,780 a year, and online court records showed she had very limited court experience.
DeMaster’s history has been condemned by advocacy and religious leaders at the local and national levels, as has the insistence of Spencer’s top deputy that the staff had “an open mind” to DeMaster.
Of particular interest to those groups was her previous work for the Clarion Project, a group that has been labeled one of the leading proponents of Islamophobia in the United States, and before that for the American Center for Law and Justice, where she served as a law clerk preparing attorneys on “sharia law (and) radical Islamic ideology,” according to a resume she filed in federal court.
She also wrote “Babylon Unveiled,” a book in which she argued that Islam is not a peaceful religion.
Spencer did not respond to the group’s call to fire DeMaster.
And last week, when Russia was about to attack Ukraine, she took to the Russian state-controlled television network to argue that Putin was within his rights to recognize two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and send troops to the area. send.
DeMaster told Russia Today that Putin has done nothing wrong by recognizing two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and deploying troops there.
“When people like US Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken or (UK Prime Minister) Boris Johnson or others or (President) Joe Biden come out and say this is a clear violation of international law, it just isn’t no clear violation of international law because they can’t name international law that is being violated.”
DeMaster also told Russia Today, which is owned and controlled by Russia, that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine had no impact on US security.
“There is no threat to US national security,” said DeMaster, who was listed on the broadcast as a “legal analyst.” “We have a lot of problems here at home that actually pose a threat to national security.”
It wasn’t her first time on Russia Today, where she appeared dozens of times as an expert on everything from US foreign policy to Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide.
Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr†
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee assistant attorney who supported Putin on Russia Today is fired
