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Republicans are blasting the Biden administration for not giving the Senate Judiciary Committee information about a child porn case in which Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson sentenced the defendant to the mandatory minimum until after her confirmation hearing had wrapped up.
Jackson sentenced Lucas Cane — who was caught with 6,500 files of elementary, middle high school children engaged in sexual acts — to 60 months in prison while a judge on the DC district court.
However, the federal probation office had recommended a sentence of 84 months for Cane.
Jackson, who is poised to become the first black woman to sit on the Supreme Court if confirmed, handed down the sentence last year as she was about to be elevated to the DC appeals court.
“Not only does this case, which Judge Jackson left off her list of child abuse cases, undercut her argument that she followed the probation office’s recommended sentences, but it also underscores the perils of moving too quickly in the vetting process,” a Republican Judiciary Committee aide told Fox News before suggesting the White House “intentionally” failed to make note of the case.
“Committee Republicans only just got the sentencing transcript for this case on Friday, after the hearing had ended,” the aide said. “Clearly, the White House either didn’t thoroughly vet the nominee, or were aware of the record and intentionally left it out in hopes that the nominee would be confirmed before the full record could be uncovered and reviewed.”
Jackson came under withering questioning from GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina during last week’s confirmation hearing over her record on sentencing child sex cases. The lawmakers highlighted seven cases in which Jackson sentenced defendants to terms below what prosecutors and probation officers had requested — but those cases didn’t include the Cane sentence.
“The fact that cases regarding child pornography sentencing were left off the list of child abuse cases provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee requires more scrutiny, not less,” Graham tweeted Tuesday. “All Senators should have access to all relevant materials in a timely and appropriate fashion. When it comes a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, this is the least the White House, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and nominee can do for the process.”
“When we first highlighted her record on child porn cases, the White House leaked information to their friends in the media and Democrats on the Judiciary Committee,” Hawley told Fox News.
“They hid it from the public despite knowing Judge Jackson gives lenient sentences to criminals,” he added. “The White House is still refusing to be transparent about Judge Jackson’s record.”
The Biden administration said the omission was unintentional but argued that Cane’s sentencing was consistent with what federal prosecutors had sought.
“This case, in which Judge Jackson sentenced the defendant to the term of imprisonment recommended by the government, proves to an even greater extent that in the large majority of her decisions involving child sex crimes, the sentences Judge Jackson imposed were either consistent with or above what the government or the US Probation Office recommended,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to Fox News.
Bates also argued that some Republicans who criticized Jackson’s sentences during the hearing had “voted for Trump-nominated judges who sentenced defendants for the same crimes in the same way.”
Cruz, during his questioning of Jackson last week, produced a chart noting that in several cases, the judge had pronounced sentences that were a 14% to 64% reduction from what the case prosecutor had requested.
“Do you believe the voice of the children is heard when 100% of the time you’re sentencing those in possession of child pornography to far below what the prosecutors asking for?” he asked her.
“Yes, senator, I do,” Jackson said, explaining that the chart did not include all the factors judges were tasked by Congress to consider.
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