In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called out President Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, for having “a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes.”
Detailing Judge Jackson’s rulings, interviews, articles, and speeches, Hawley called attention to the “alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children.”
“As far back as her time in law school, Judge Jackson has questioned making convicts register as sex offenders – saying it leads to ‘stigmatization and ostracism,’” Hawley noted. “She’s suggested public policy is driven by a ‘climate of fear, hatred & revenge’ against sex offenders.”
Hawley cited a few cases as examples of her leniency towards the sentencing of child porn sex offenders.
“In United States v. Cooper, in which the criminal had more than 600 images and videos and posted many on a public blog, the Guidelines called for a sentence of 151-188 months. Judge Jackson settled on 60 months, the lowest possible sentence allowed by law,” Hawley tweeted.
“In United States v. Downs, the perp posted multiple images to an anonymous instant messaging app, including an image of a child under the age of 5. The Guidelines recommended 70-87 months. Judge Jackson gave him the lowest sentence allowed by law, 60 months,” he said in another tweet.
Hawley called Jackson’s record “disturbing,” and added, “sending child predators to jail shouldn’t be controversial.”
“In every single child porn case for which we can find records, Judge Jackson deviated from the federal sentencing guidelines in favor of child porn offenders,” Hawley wrote.
