Ex-DLA lawyer says he's not a white supremacist after Baltimore fires him for alleged neo-Nazi ties
The city of Baltimore has fired a lawyer hired on a contract basis to defend police misconduct cases after the Southern Poverty Law Center alleged he has ties to neo-Nazi and racist groups.
The lawyer is 65-year-old Glen Keith Allen, who formerly worked at DLA Piper, report the Baltimore Sun, the Huffington Post, WBAL and the Washington Post. He was hired by Baltimore in February and was helping defend a wrongful conviction lawsuit by a black man who spent 19 years in prison and was awaiting a new trial when prosecutors dropped charges.
The SPLC had claimed Allen contributed money to the neo-Nazi group the National Alliance and paid to attend a conference discussing denial of the Holocaust. He also contributed to the American Eagle Party, which the SPLC says is a racist political party.
Allen told the Washington Post he agrees with the decision to end his contract because of the possibility that the allegations would influence judicial rulings against his clients. He told the Post that he is not a white supremacist and he has no beliefs in white supremacy. “Just look at the Olympics, that’s ridiculous,” Allen told the Post.
He told the Baltimore Sun that he had not been a member of the National Alliance for many years. “I will acknowledge emphatically that that was a huge mistake,” he said of his prior membership.
He also said the American Eagle Party “has nothing to do with race” though it is critical of Israel, according to the Washington Post. He acknowledged he is vice chairman of the organization.
He told the Sun that there isn’t a single person who would say he had treated anyone with disrespect.
He told the Post he believes it is “healthy to identify with your racial past” and “there’s an amount of identity, pride in your race, that’s not permitted today. I also understand it can be obnoxious and create violence, and that’s not acceptable.”
