Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) figures he has a reason to make Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s path to the U.S. Supreme Court bench more difficult: how she sentences child pornography offenders.

But fact-checkers and many of Judge Jackson’s legal peers have immediately pushed back, saying his campaign is misleading at best and at worst channels baseless and recurring conspiracy theories to paint liberals as predators.

Starting Wednesday evening with a Twitter thread, Hawley argued that Jackson’s record shows she’s lenient on convicted sex offenders, especially those convicted of possessing child pornography. He specifically claims that as a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Jackson wanted to get rid of mandatory minimum sentences for convicted child pornography offenders. He also said that as a district court judge, she “deviated from the federal sentencing guidelines in favor of child porn offenders” in every public case available.

“If you look at what she’s done as a judge on the bench, when she had the chance to put away child predators … she chose to give them the lightest sentence possible, in case after case,” Hawley told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday.

But Hawley’s three-pronged attack severely misinterprets Jackson’s record and takes her statements out of context, as journalists and law professionals pointed out. Some have also said the senator evoking a dog whistle for QAnon far-right extremists to get involved in the nomination process.

In one instance, Hawley claimed Jackson tried to label some child pornography offenders to be “less serious” criminals. That misattribution comes from a 2012 U.S. Sentencing Commission meeting. The statement Hawley uses — between pages 66 and 67 — highlights Jackson using the phrase “less-serious child pornography offender.” But going back to page 48 shows that she is quoting and questioning testimony by University of Massachusetts computer science professor Dr. Brian Levine, who is the first to bring up the “less-serious offenders” line. This happens again, with Hawley taking Jackson’s statements out of context on page 139; here she is quoting testimony from New York Center for Neuropsychology’s Dr. Jennifer McCarthy starting on page 108.

Hawley’s distortions do not end there. Another attack labels Jackson as unique in wanted to get rid of mandatory minimum sentences for child pornography offenders. That comes from a 2011 report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in which the bipartisan agency unanimously recommended changing mandatory minimum sentences.

Finally, Hawley claims Jackson is aberrant in how she sentenced certain sex offenders. She is not in the slightest unique in not using federal guidelines for non-production child pornography offenders: Only 30% of those offenders in district court cases are sentenced within those guidelines, according to a 2021 U.S. Sentencing Commission report.

“Less than 30% of all non-production cases get a Guidelines sentence because just about federal judge realizes these Guidelines are too severe,” says New York University law professor Rachel Barkow. “So KBJ is doing what most of the federal bench does.”

Hawley’s comments on Jackson received wide condemnation from White House officials throughout the week.

“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,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.

“This is toxic and weakly-presented misinformation that relies on taking cherry-picked elements of her record out of context – and it buckles under the lightest scrutiny,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates. He also said that the senator’s comments are based on “selectively presenting a short transcript excerpt in which Judge Jackson was quoting a witness’s testimony back to them to ask a question, and on omitting that her rulings are in line with sentencing practices across the entire federal judiciary regarding these crimes.”

Hawley and his team have gone on defense, frantically pushing back on those criticizing the senator’s argument. In a press release posted Friday morning, Hawley said Jackson’s decisions were her own and falsely stated that the judge’s words in the 2012 transcript indicate that she “has changed her mind on child porn offenders” as a result of witness testimony.

Abigail Marone, Hawley’s press secretary, spent much of Friday sending dozens of tweets attacking the White House and national reporters for criticizing the senator’s comments.

“He’s asking questions about her record,” Marone said in a quote retweet of Mediate’s coverage. “This is not a smear.”

Jackson’s nomination to replace Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court has been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Republican senators are watching Hawley’s campaign.

“The White House’s whataboutist [sic] response to Judge Jackson’s very real record in child pornography cases is dismissive, dangerous, and offensive,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) tweeted Thursday. “We need real answers.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a member of the Judicial Committee that will first vote to confirm the judge, told the Washington Post that she plans to bring up Jackson’s record on child pornography offenders during the confirmation hearings.

Follow Austin on Twitter @AuLinfante