Senate Republicans confirmed nearly a dozen Trump judges who were by their own definition soft on child predators.
ABC News fact-checked the claims made by Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and others during the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and found:
An ABC News review of federal judges appointed and confirmed during the Trump administration found nearly a dozen had handed down below-guideline sentences in cases of defendants viewing, possessing, transporting or distributing child pornography.
Judge Ralph Erickson of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, confirmed in 2017 with support from Sen. Lee, sentenced defendants in at least 11 child porn cases to prison terms below the recommendation, records show.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar, who was on Trump’s Supreme Court short list in 2018, sentenced a man convicted of distribution of child pornography to 73 months behind bars when the guidelines suggested 97-121 months.
Senate Republicans might want to take a look at their own records before they attack Judge Jackson. By their standards, Josh Hawley, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz are soft on child predators because they voted to confirm Trump judicial nominees who imposed less than the minimum sentence.
The smear against Biden’s SCOTUS nominee is less than baseless. It is hypocritical. If Senate Republicans want judges to sentence child predators to federal minimum sentences, they should pass legislation to reimpose the minimums that the Supreme Court tossed more than 15 years ago.
Republicans have no good reason to vote against the confirmation of Judge Jackson, and their smear campaign has only exposed their inconsistency and hypocrisy.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
The RNC's Chief Election Integrity Counsel, Christina Bobb, has been indicted for her role in…
Seven Trump allies and lawyers were indicted along with all of the fake electors for…
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) reviewed the numbers and showed that Donald Trump has a steep…
President Biden took down Trump and said that when the ex-president injected bleach, it missed…
A new poll from Quinnipiac University reveals that the vast majority of Americans following Trump's…
Michigan prosecutors consider Donald Trump a co-conspirator in the GOP plot to use false electors…
This website uses cookies.