Josh Hawley voices concern over Supreme Court nominee's history of child porn case sentencing

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is concerned about Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's rulings on a number of child pornography cases. 

On Wednesday, Hawley took to Twitter to say that he will make sure to ask Jackson at her confirmation hearing next week about what he believes are a series of lax sentencing decisions in several child pornography cases.

"Judge Jackson has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker. She’s been advocating for it since law school. This goes beyond 'soft on crime.' I’m concerned that this a record that endangers our children," wrote the senator.

The 10 cases, according to Hawley, are all from Jackson's time on the U.S. District Court of D.C., which spanned 2013-2021. 

On Thursday, Hawley spoke to reporters about what he's uncovered. "She’s had about, I think, 100 cases that went to trial and then to sentencing out of her 500 or so and then about 10 of them were child porn cases. Given her total number of cases there’s actually quite a few of these," he said.

"The pattern is pretty distinct and pretty troubling and you couple that with her views on the sentencing commission and getting rid of the existing mandatory-minimum for child porn and then what she’s written in law school, where she said sex offender registries may be unconstitutional, that our sex offender laws were written in a climate of fear and revenge," said Hawley, drawing out a larger narrative about Judge Jackson's history with the subject.

The White House has come to the staunch defense of Jackson, saying that Hawley is introducing "toxic" and "weakly-presented misinformation that relies on taking cherry-picked elements of her record out of context – and it buckles under the lightest scrutiny."

Likewise, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters, "I’m not concerned about it," referring to Hawley's concerns, which he said he has not fully examined.

"She’s been vetted, screened, reviewed for three nominations. I would be very, very skeptical about any claims of somehow sympathy for child predators. I’m tempted to say 'Seems kind of ridiculous,' but my colleagues can say whatever they want," he added.