Hancock County prosecutor fires deputy for anti-Trump online posts

The Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday it fired a deputy prosecutor who posted Facebook messages expressing her disgust of social media friends who voted for President-Elect Donald Trump and asked that they unfriend her.
Attorney Jordan Stroh Ouellette also shared a post from the Relegalize Indiana PAC Facebook page that contained a quote attributed to novelist and essayist A.R. Moxon, author of the book Very Fine People. That quote said historians still call Germans Nazis if they joined the Nazi Party, not for a dislike of Jewish people, but for economic anxiety, patriotism, political opportunity, or to preserve their religious values.
Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton, a Republican in his third term, shared a note addressed to staff and the letter of termination with IndyStar. In the note, Eaton said he has worked to improve the public’s perception of the office from one that “engaged in political prosecutions to harm its enemies and used broad discretion to avoid prosecuting its ‘friends.'”
Stroh Ouellette’s posts, he said, violated the office’s mission and values, and undermined efforts to be seen as fair and impartial.
“I hope we can agree that the communication in question would clearly not be appropriate if it referred to people of any ethnicity, religion, or gender or sexual identity in the manner in which it referred to ‘Trump Voters,'” Eaton said in the note. “Political discrimination and or bias does not have a place in our decision making.”
The ordeal in Hancock County highlights the political divisions and strong emotions in the aftermath of Trump’s election to a second term. Trump is a polarizing right-wing political figure who campaigned on populism and an “America First agenda” to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris in last week’s national election. The dawning of his second term has invoked jubilation from those who welcome Trump back to the Oval Office and fear from those alarmed by his insulting rhetoric about political opponents, the media, migrants and others.
Stroh Ouellette was out of the office — to get married and honeymoon until Nov. 18 — when her firing occurred on Nov. 12. Eaton sent her a two-page dismissal letter explaining he had received multiple complaints about her social media activity and that her repost of the Moxon quote was intended to clearly communicate that Trump supporters are similar to Nazis.
“As a Prosecutor, you are charged with being a minister of justice. Unfortunately, the decisions you made to post content to your social media page call into question your ability to be a fair and impartial minister of justice equitably, to all that you serve in this community,” he wrote in the letter to Stroh Ouellette. “They have irreparably tarnished the credibility and trust people have in HCPO.”
When reached by phone, Stroh Ouellette responded with a text messaging saying the two posts reflected her opinions on who she wished to interact with in her personal life and had no bearing on her ability to be fair and impartial as a prosecutor. She also said she’s disheartened by being fired due to her passion for the rights of all individuals.
“Prior to this current election, my opinions remained the same,” she said in the text message sent from outside the U.S. “At no point did my personal opinions prevent me from being fair and impartial in the execution of my duties. This especially rings true whenever my opinions were posted to my private Facebook page with no public ties to the Prosecutor’s Office.”
She added the posts were deleted prior to her firing and she had received no direction from the office on how to realign her social media comments prior to Eaton’s decision to fire her. “At the end of the day, my job was to advocate for the safety of the people of Hancock County and all of my actions did so,” she said.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Eaton said Stroh Ouellette’s social media activity was brought to his attention last week after the election. He said he began to hear chatter that members of Hancock County law enforcement community were upset. He said equating Trump supporters to Nazis is offensive to him personally and others. “How many times can you refer to large swaths of people as Nazis?” he said. “I think the answer zero. The answer should be zero.”
Eaton said victims of crime who voted for Trump or display his campaign paraphernalia should be confident that they will be adequately represented by Hancock County prosecutors without having their political beliefs held against them. He also disagreed that the posts were private, saying that Facebook is a public platform that’s meant to be seen and shared.
“This was not a private email between two people. This was not a private message between, you know, parties speaking privately,” he said. “This was in a space which specifically is designed for you to put communication and thoughts into this public sphere.”
Eaton said his opinion on the subject would remain the same if staff referred to supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris in the same manner. When asked if he would hold prosecutors who publicly and enthusiastically support Trump, whose second term invokes fear and uncertainty in some Americans, to the same standard as Stroh Ouellette, Eaton said he doesn’t see an equivalency.
“You are saying people that have different political beliefs than you are disgusting and don’t see human life and have value and are directly the same as some of the 20th Century’s death cults and greatest mass murders and the other one is saying, ‘I support the now newly-elected president elect’ and so no, there’s not a moral equivalency,” he said.
Contact IndyStar investigative reporter Alexandria Burris at [email protected].  Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @allyburris.