CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin suggested Tuesday that sentences for people possessing child pornography might be too harsh — largely, he argued, because the internet made such content far more accessible.
Toobin joined host Kate Bolduan on CNN’s “At This Hour” to discuss the ongoing Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson — and the topic turned to child pornography after several Republicans questioned Judge Jackson’s record on such cases.
WATCH:
“Can I just add one point about these kiddie porn cases?” Toobin, who lost his position at The New Yorker after literally being caught with his pants down during a work Zoom call, asked during a panel discussion about the hearing.
“This came up, I remember, when I was an assistant U.S. Attorney back in the ’90s is that when those sentencing guidelines were written for those cases, that this was a time when the people who committed these crimes would order individual photos and get them usually through email and then they would be sentenced based on the number of photos they possessed,” Toobin added. “This was all pre-internet. So once the internet came in and people got access to hundreds and then thousands of photos, they would, the sentencing guidelines would reflect hundreds and then thousands of photos.”
Toobin went on to suggest that the increased availability naturally led to much greater numbers of photos that people possessed — and that the sentencing recommendations did not reflect that change.
“What I thought Chairman Durbin pointed out is that judges across the country, including Republican appointed judges, have been saying, look, we can’t apply the rules that were designed pre-internet for an internet society and many judges have been giving somewhat less sentences as a result and I thought that was a very clear explanation of why Judge Jackson imposed sentences that were all prison sentences. It wasn’t like she was letting these people go, but they were somewhat less than the guidelines because the guidelines had not been adapted for the internet era,” Toobin concluded.
Jackson’s own defense of her recommendations was almost identical to Toobin’s: “Courts are adjusting their sentences in order to account for the changed circumstances.”
Judge Jackson: Sentencing guidelines for child pornography offenders are "leading to extreme disparities in the system."
"Courts are adjusting their sentences in order to account for the changed circumstances…" pic.twitter.com/H0ZeyRAGm6
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 22, 2022
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) brought the topic to the forefront ahead of the hearings that started Monday, saying that he was concerned to see her discretionary sentences for those convicted of child pornography possession were often much lighter than either the law or the prosecution recommended.
As The Daily Wire reported:
I’ve been researching the record of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, reading her opinions, articles, interviews & speeches,” the senator said. “I’ve noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children.
Hawley claimed that as far back as during Jackson’s time in law school, the judge has questioned whether convicts should be made to register as sex offenders and said that it leads to “stigmatization and ostracism.”
“She’s suggested public policy is driven by a ‘climate of fear, hatred & revenge’ against sex offenders,” Hawley tweeted.
“It gets worse,” he warned. “As a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Judge Jackson advocated for drastic change in how the law treats sex offenders by eliminating the existing mandatory minimum sentences for child porn.”
The White House responded to Hawley’s accusations, as spokesman Andrew Bates declared his words “toxic and weakly-presented misinformation that relies on taking cherry-picked elements of her record out of context.”