Ada sheriff interviews: Comments about Jews, talk of a ‘cabal’ and news of a ‘succession’ plan
At a public meeting on Wednesday, candidates for the recently vacated Ada County sheriff’s position were interviewed by the county’s three commissioners.
The former sheriff, Steve Bartlett, abruptly resigned at the end of May after being re-elected to the post last November. The Ada County Republican Central Committee nominated three candidates to fill the position, and the county’s commissioners are scheduled to make their choice Friday.
During the Wednesday afternoon interviews, commissioners questioned one candidate, Doug Traubel, about controversial comments he has posted on social media and in other writings, including a book he wrote called, “Red Badge: A Veteran peace officer’s commentary on the Marxist subversion of American Law Enforcement & Culture.”
Commissioner Kendra Kenyon, of District 3, questioned Traubel about posts he has written about the number of Black men who rape white women; his support for the “constitutional” sheriff movement; and comments that he wears a mask with “hoax” written on it when traveling on airplanes, that “Islam is the culture of death” and that single mothers are “not an economically viable unit.”
“As a single mom raising two kids, I personally take offense to all of these,” Kenyon said.
Later, she asked Traubel about the source of a sentence in his book that “at least 50%” of rape allegations are false.
In response to Kenyon’s questions, Traubel said that when his comments are “suspended in the air without the context of the chapters and paragraphs” that surround them, “it paints an unfair picture of me.”
He added that “we should treat one another as equally precious,” and that his personal opinions would not interfere with his ability to serve as sheriff.
He also said that he could not name the origin for his statistic about the number of false rape allegations off the top of his head, but that his book was factual and well-sourced.
The commissioners also asked Traubel about the circumstances of his departure from the Ada County prosecutor’s office, which he left in 2019. Kenyon read from a letter the chief criminal deputy prosecuting attorney sent to Traubel after another employee thought that Traubel’s “personal documents” called into question his “ability to remain unbiased” in his work.
Traubel said that in his last few years at the prosecutor’s office, he became “more bold” about voicing his opinions on social media.
“At some point it was obvious that I could not expect my employer to accommodate my interest in expanding my footprint,” he told the commissioners. “For that reason it was mutual that I left. It wasn’t a negative thing. It was just the right thing to do.”
Traubel also explained his views on the sheriff’s authority.
The “constitutional” sheriff’s movement claims that elected sheriffs are the supreme law enforcement officials within their jurisdictions, meaning that sheriffs have authority over both federal and state law enforcement agencies.
Under the U.S. Constitution, federal laws and authority generally supersede state laws.
Traubel stated that if a “social justice mentality is pulling the reins on the police” in Boise during a protest, “if I get wind of that, I’m going in.” He added that he would “call (Boise police) officers under my command.”
“It kind of sounds like you’d be willing to take up arms against the Boise police,” Rod Beck, commissioner for District 2, said in response.
Kenyon also questioned Traubel about his experience as an administrator, noting that the Sheriff’s Office employs around 800 people and has a budget of about $100 million.
Traubel said he has never had an official administrative role, but he said that his experience with budgets as a small-business owner would help him as sheriff.
During one line of questioning from Beck about his writings, Traubel offered an extended commentary on the history of World War II, which he said allowed for the expansion of communism. Traubel said Jews are to blame for the creation of the Soviet Union and for the subsequent violence that followed.
He said that Jews were victims in Nazi Germany, but that “they were the villain class in the Soviet Union” because they “led the Bolshevik revolution.”
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Judeo-Bolshevism was a prominent form of Nazi propaganda, which claimed that communism was a Jewish plot to threaten Germany.
“What we don’t often hear … is how many hundreds of thousands of people were killed (in the Soviet Union) and what group actually started that,” Traubel added.
‘THE CABAL ... STILL IS KIND OF IN CONTROL’
The commissioners also interviewed Mike Chilton, a former Marine Corps veteran, Sheriff’s Office employee and candidate for county coroner who left law enforcement in 2010 to run All American Investments.
Chilton told the commissioners that “hundreds” of deputies had texted or called him in support of his candidacy. When Ryan Davidson, commissioner for District 1, encouraged Chilton to forward those comments to the commissioners for review, Chilton said that he thought many of them would be reluctant to do so for fear of retribution.
“The cabal that has controlled Ada County for three and a half decades still is kind of in control and still is there,” Chilton said.
Chilton initially declined to sign a release waiver allowing the commissioners to review his prior personnel and employment files, according to Kenyon, and when he did sign a “partial waiver” on Tuesday, it was “edited to the point that we really couldn’t use it,” she said.
Chilton said that the initial waiver was “fraught with problems” and that it included a “promise to dox everything to the public,” referring to the practice where identifying information is published online about an individual with the intent to harm them.
“In 2021, when we live in a world where Antifa, BLM, all kinds of people show up … the amount of information and the promise to put it out to the public is what concerned me,” he said.
Chilton said that his experience as a financial adviser prepared him to manage the sheriff’s budget, and that he has kept aware of police-related issues since leaving law enforcement over a decade ago.
On Wednesday, he expressed concern about how previous sheriffs have come to office.
“We’re trying to get a fourth sheriff in a row now that’s picked out of a small group of people,” he said. “It’s time to open the windows and let some fresh air into that building.”
‘MY TIMELINE GOT BUMPED UP’
The final candidate the commissioners interviewed was Matt Clifford, the police chief of Eagle and the only candidate for the office serving in law enforcement. Because the city of Eagle contracts its police force with the county, he is a lieutenant in the Sheriff’s Office already.
Clifford emphasized his two decades of experience in law enforcement during his interview, as well as his experience managing his police force’s budget.
“It wasn’t until I was promoted and appointed to the chief of police that I really had a realization that I have a skill set and knowledge and experience that I really, truly believe that I could be the sheriff of a large agency,” he said.
When Davidson asked Clifford whether he would be able to handle the sheriff’s position after serving in Eagle, which Davidson says has a lower crime rate than other parts of the county, Clifford cited his experience working as a K9 dog handler all around the county.
He added that he was the incident commander on Tuesday when a SWAT team entered the home of an Eagle resident after an eight-hour standoff with police.
Clifford spoke in support of expanding the Ada County Jail, which he said was necessary to accommodate the region’s growing population. Chilton also supported expanding the jail, while he and Traubel both thought that the county should work to reduce the jail’s population.
Clifford also said he and a small group of other Sheriff’s Office employees had met to do some “succession planning,” and that the group recently decided that Clifford would run for sheriff in 2024.
“We talked to the previous sheriff about that, ironically six days before he retired,” Clifford said. “My timeline got bumped up … people knew that we were talking about it and knew that I was going to step up in that role eventually.”
Beck asked each candidate about the technique used by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin that killed George Floyd and led to widespread national unrest last summer. Each candidate said he was troubled by what happened, but Traubel and Clifford both said that the technique, when used appropriately, could be an effective means of controlling a person.
The commissioners were reconvening Thursday to discuss Wednesday’s interviews, and Kenyon said they will make their selection by Friday.
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This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
