(WWL.com) - The Louisiana Democratic Party has filed public information requests to verify a claim made by Republican Congressman Clay Higgins that he’s arrested “several thousand men” in his time in law enforcement. Executive Director Stephen Handwerk says it was a troubling claim that was either untruthful, or demonstrative of something much worse.
“He came out and said that he has made thousands of arrests, thousands plural, and we think that that is either a gross overstatement of what he has actually done, or, if accurate, is really an unsettling abuse of power.”
The claim was made Wednesday when Higgins was questioning former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen during a Congressional testimony.
Handwerk says they’re committed to pursuing whether or not that statement is true, and if it is a factual statement, they intend to figure out what the conviction rate was on those thousands of arrests, given what the Democrat says is Higgins’ troubled history in positions of authority.
“When he resigned in disgrace from two of his previous law enforcement jobs for instances of unprofessional behavior, falsifying statements, and physical abuse, this certainly is a major concern to us.”
Handwerk says they were inspired to file the request after getting calls from cops who said there’s no way Higgins has arrested that many people.
“We have more than a few members of law enforcement who reached out to us and said that number cannot even be close to being true.”
Higgins spokesperson Andrew David responded, saying “The Louisiana Democratic Party is free to dig through that data. Congressman Higgins was a police officer for over a decade. Standard shifts for a patrol cop are 14 12-hour shifts per month. That doesn’t include overtime hours or security details worked, which are very common. It’s also not uncommon for any patrol officer to make several arrests in one shift or several arrests from a single incident during one shift. Further, this doesn’t count traffic arrests, referred to as summons.”