Ted Cruz grills Ketanji Brown Jackson on light sentencing in child porn cases

On the second day of Biden-nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Senate confirmation hearings, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) grilled the SCOTUS nominee Tuesday on her judiciary record related to child pornography cases where she imposed sentences below federal guidelines and what prosecutors were requesting.

Cruz displayed a table of Jackson's light sentencing of child pornography offenders, outlining the federal cases, the government's recommendations, the sentencing guidelines, and the sentences imposed at the time. "Let's look at what the prosecutors are asking for," Cruz prefaced the case-by-base analysis.

"And I would note that this is in the District of Columbia where prosecutors are far more liberal than many of the prosecutors in this country," Cruz explained.

In United States vs. Hess, there was a mandatory statutory minimum of 60 months. "And you imposed 60 months because you had no discretion," Cruz told Jackson. The Pennsylvania man convicted of distributing child pornography was sentenced in September 2017 to five years in prison, plus 10 years of supervised release, and mandatory registration as a sex offender for 15 following years.