The White House is pushing back on Republican scrutiny of Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson after Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley raised questions about her record regarding child sex crimes.
“In the vast majority of cases involving child sex crimes, the sentences Judge Jackson imposed were consistent with or above what the government or U.S. probation recommended,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
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Psaki slammed Hawley’s criticism as “out of context” since Jackson was “repeating something a witness said in order to ask a question about their testimony.”
“She is endorsed by so many leading law enforcement organizations in the country and attempts to smear or discredit her history and her work are not borne out in facts,” the press secretary said.
She added: “I’m not sure that someone who refused to tell people whether or not he would vote for Roy Moore is an effective and credible messenger on this.”
Biden would also watch some of Jackson’s confirmation hearings next week, but his schedule has not yet finalized, according to Psaki.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates earlier ripped Hawley’s remarks as “toxic and weakly-presented misinformation.”
Hawley, who met with Jackson last week before her hearings, expressed concerns Thursday that there was “an alarming pattern” in her past decisions “that endangers our children.”
One instance Hawley cited was the case United States v. Hawkins, which involved a defendant who had “multiple images of child porn.”
“He was over 18,” the senator and possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate tweeted. “The Sentencing Guidelines called for a sentence of up to 10 years. Judge Jackson sentenced the perpetrator to only 3 months in prison. Three months.”
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Hawley has also claimed that Jackson, who previously served as the head of the U.S. Sentencing Commission from 2010 to 2014 before her career as a federal judge, “advocated for drastic change in how the law treats sex offenders by eliminating the existing mandatory minimum sentences for child porn.”
