Inset: One of the social media posts that Jordan Stroh made about Donald Trump supporters (Facebook/WXIN/Hancock County Deputy Prosecutor). Background: Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A deputy prosecutor in Indiana has been fired for voicing her disdain with Donald Trump voters on social media — writing on Facebook after the election that they “disgust” her and “clearly don’t respect” human beings — in addition to sharing posts about them being Nazis, according to her boss.
“If you voted for Trump, please unfriend me,” wrote Jordan Stroh, former deputy prosecuting attorney for the Hancock County District Attorney’s Office, in a Facebook post cited by District Attorney Brent Eaton this week in her termination letter, which was obtained by local CBS affiliate WTTV and local Fox affiliate WXIN.
“You disgust me and clearly don’t respect me or other human beings,” she added.
A post that Stroh shared from the Relegalize Indiana PAC’s Facebook page was said to have contained a quote attributed to novelist and essayist A.R. Moxon, author of the book “Very Fine People.”
Deputy Hancock County Prosecutor Jordan Oulette Stroh was fired from her job due to her social media activity post-election. One Facebook post said, in part, “If you voted for Trump, please unfriend me.” Another quoted something from @JuliusGoat. Letter below: pic.twitter.com/D9evG7Jy9H
— CJHoytNews (@CJHoytNews) November 13, 2024
“[The post] in context, seemed to clearly be referring to the election and voters who supported the now President-Elect,” Eaton noted in Stroh’s Nov. 12 termination letter, adding that the post was shared “with the clear intent to communicate a belief that those who voted for the now President-Elect were NAZIS in the same manner as those who were members of one of the twentieth centuries most homicidal, anti-semitic, genocidal death cults.”
Speaking to the Indianapolis Star while on her honeymoon, Stroh claimed her posts were in reference to people in her personal life, not individuals she meets and works with as a deputy prosecutor. She believes she shouldn’t have been fired by Eaton.
“Prior to this current election, my opinions remained the same,” Stroh said by text. “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.”
Eaton told Stroh in his letter that as a prosecutor, she should have known better, regardless of how she felt.
A portion of the termination letter sent to Jordan Stroh Oulette by Hancock County Prosecutor Benn Easton’s (WXIN/YouTube).
“You are charged with being a minister of justice,” he said. “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. They have irreparably tarnished the credibility and trust people have in HCPO. Therefore, your employment with HCPO is terminated.”
Eaton told Stroh that he probed her Facebook page and found her posts to be “problematic” after receiving “multiple complaints” from people, including county staffers.
A Facebook post that Jordan Stroh Ouellette shared after Donald Trump’s election win (Facebook/WXIN/Hancock County Deputy Prosecutor).
“HCPO can only be successful if we have public trust,” Eaton said. “Public trust is very difficult to acquire and very easy to lose. It is my expectation that all people who enter our office or interact with our team firmly believe that the decisions we make daily are based upon an unbiased and common-sense reading of the law and interpretation of the facts. It is critical that all people firmly know that, no matter their political preferences, HCPO will always interact and serve them with respect.”
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Eaton told the Indy Star on Wednesday that members of Hancock County’s law enforcement community were mainly upset about Stroh’s Nazi post, explaining that he sees their point.
“How many times can you refer to large swaths of people as Nazis?” Eaton said. “I think the answer zero. The answer should be zero.”
Attempts to reach Stroh for comment on Thursday were unsuccessful.
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