Josh Hawley was projecting when he falsely attacked Judge Jackson at her SCOTUS hearing

Sen. Josh Hawley was residing in a glass house when he metaphorically hurled rocks at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson -- falsely suggesting that she was soft on sex-related crimes during her U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearing.

Hawley’s own record on the subject is nothing to boast about. On multiple instances in his fleeting two-year stint as Missouri attorney general -- before he was elected to the U.S. Senate -- Hawley was either disinterested or inept in prosecuting sex crimes.

Some of that history was laid out today in a National Memo report today.

“Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has spent the past few weeks attacking Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson for her sentencing record, including falsely accusing her of showing leniency for sexual predators. But Hawley's own record as a prosecutor may not match his current rhetoric.

“The Missouri Republican's widely debunked accusations falsely asserted that ‘Judge Jackson has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes, both as a judge and as a policymaker’ and showed an ‘alarming trend of lenient sentencing.’"

And then it noted Hawley’s hypocrisy.

“While Hawley has never served as a judge, he does have experience prosecuting sex crime cases as Missouri's attorney general from 2017 to 2019. Although that office has only a small prosecutorial role in the state's criminal justice system, Hawley's brief tenure was marred by criticism of his handling of sexual abuse claims by victims.

“In January 2021, the Kansas City Star published a guest column by Pam Hamilton, a former Hawley appointee who questioned his handling of human trafficking cases. "I was on Josh Hawley’s human trafficking task force," the headline of Hamilton's story read. "He sought TV cameras, not justice."

And as National Memo noted, things didn’t work out well even when Hawley presumably sought justice.

“One prosecution Hawley did handle as attorney general was a 2018 sexual abuse and domestic assault case against former Knox County Sheriff Robert Becker. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's probable cause statement, Becker was charged with violent sexual encounters against his former partner, who alleged he "choked" her with a shirt in one instance.

“Instead of bringing the case to trial, Hawley agreed to a plea deal in which Becker served no jail time and instead received two years of probation and resigned his office.”

Still, Hawley had celebrated that relative slap on the wrist, the report noted.

“There is no place for law enforcement officers who abuse their power," Hawley said at the time. "As a result of today's plea, Mr. Becker can no longer serve in any law enforcement capacity. The Knox County community is safer as a result of today's action."

But it turns out that wasn’t true, as probation charges were filed against Becker after Hawley left office, as the report stated.

“In November 2020 a judge ruled that Becker had failed to complete the mandatory sexual offender counseling required under the plea bargain and sentenced him to 20 days of "shock incarceration" — jail time intended to "shock" an offender into avoiding future crimes.”

Hawley’s shortcomings on sex crimes were not confined to the ones detailed in the report. Soon after taking office in 2018, Hawley attempted to brush aside explosive allegations of sexual abuse by priests. He tried to pass the responsibility to local prosecutors saying he lacked jurisdiction, the Kansas City Star reported at the time.

“Survivors of clergy sexual abuse weren’t satisfied with that answer,” the Star reported. “They sought to put pressure on the attorney general — who is also the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate — by holding events in Kansas City and outside Hawley’s St. Louis office demanding he get involved.

“Hawley reversed course. He announced that his office would launch an investigation after the Archdiocese of St. Louis reached out and offered to open up its files for scrutiny. The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph quickly followed suit.

“While my office does not have jurisdiction at the present time to prosecute any criminal acts of this nature, or to issue subpoenas to investigate it, it would be possible to conduct a thorough and robust investigation of potential clergy abuse if the various dioceses were willing to cooperate,” Hawley told reporters.

“Not everyone was quite so ready to celebrate the news. Nicole Goravosky, a former local and federal prosecutor who specializes in child sexual abuse cases, said what Hawley has proposed is “not a true investigation.” “You don’t allow the fox to guard the hen house,” she said. “You don’t allow the accused to have control over what is investigated. And that’s what is going on.”

“And Hawley’s hesitancy to get involved drew criticism from Missouri Democrats, who say it’s become a familiar pattern for the attorney general to dodge thorny issues until they become too politically toxic to ignore.

“Josh Hawley’s record is clear,” said Brooke Goren, deputy communications director for the Missouri Democratic Party. “He puts himself and his political ambitions ahead of his responsibility to seek the answers Missourians deserve no matter who is accused of wrongdoing.”