Senator Josh Hawley is either suffering from amnesia or shamelessly using victims’ pain to score political points. Josh Hawley’s line of questioning against Ketanji Brown Jackson about child pornography sentencing was not only misleading and disrespectful, it blatantly ignores Senator Hawley’s own record of supporting Donald Trump’s judicial nominees with similar records.

Senator Hawley’s record shows he’s repeatedly voted to confirm Trump-appointed judges with sentencing records similar to Judge Jackson’s and his line of questioning was little more than a shameless political attack: 

Washington Post: “These Trump judges failed Hawley’s sentencing test for Jackson”

Washington Post: “There are at least 18 instances when six GOP judges elevated to the appeals court did not follow the prosecutor’s recommendations.”

ABC News: “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.”

ABC News: “Hawley accused Jackson of advocating ‘for drastic change’ in sex offender sentencing by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for child porn while on the Commission. But he failed to mention that the panel’s Republican appointees – including Judge Friedrich – also supported revising the sentences in a unanimous vote.”

PolitiFact: “Josh Hawley misleads on Judge Jackson and child pornography sentencing”

PolitiFact: “Hawley, and Cruz, emphasized how much shorter Jackson’s sentences were than what prosecutors sought. She appears to have company, including among judges elevated to federal appeals courts during the Trump administration.”

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