The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, headed by Hudson Valley area Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney has hired an ex-gang member, according to the New York Post.
The House Democrats’ campaign arm has hired Dyjuan Tatro as a senior advisor for diversity and inclusion.
A DCCC spokesman said that Tatro had “worked hard to change the trajectory of his life through education and service to his community,” calling him a “national leader in the bipartisan movement to reform our criminal justice system and bring meaningful improvements to the education system in American prisons.”
Tatro is known for appearing in the 2019 PBS “College Behind Bars” documentary series about inmates trying to earn qualifications through the New York Bard Prison Initiative (BPI).
A former member of the Original Gangsta Killas street gang, Tatro confessed to shooting two rival gang members in 2006, to a “razor-slashing” of another victim in 2002, as well as dealing drugs. He managed to get a bachelor’s degree through the BPI while serving a six-year sentence for racketeering.
Since getting out of jail in 2017, he's become an advocate for increasing educational opportunities for inmates through the BPI.
New York State Republican Party Chairman Nick Langworthy has slammed the Dems’ move to hire an ex-gang member.
“It’s certainly on-brand for criminal-coddling Democrats, but the rest of America will find it disturbing that a murderous gang member is holding a prominent position with the DCCC,” Langworthy said. “I would have to question Congressman Maloney’s judgment to put someone with such a violent past at the top of their organisation."
