Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) called Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) out for claiming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once disparaged former President George W. Bush and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as “war criminals.”
As Jackson took questions on Tuesday in her second day of Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Cornyn concluded his time by saying he was “impressed” by her, but then asked “Why in the world would you call Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and George W. Bush war criminals in a legal filing? It seems so out of character for you.”
Jackson was visibly taken aback as she asked what instance Cornyn was referring to, and he answered that her supposed remark came while she was legally representing a member of the Taliban.
The Department of Defense identified him as an intelligence officer for the Taliban and you referred to the secretary of defense and the sitting president of the United States as war criminals.
“Senator, I don’t remember that particular reference,” Jackson said. “I was representing my clients and making arguments — I would have to take a look at what you meant. I did not intend to disparage the president or the secretary of defense.”
“Well being a war criminal has huge ramifications,” Cornyn concluded. “You can be subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and hauled before that international tribunal and tried for war crimes.
Jackson’s representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees during her years as a public defender was a recurring topic in her latest hearing. The committee went into recess shortly after Cornyn was finished, but when it re-convened, Durbin offered a rebuke of Cornyn’s charge as he explained the new research he did on Jackson’s career.
During your service as a public defender, you filed several habeas petitions against the United States naming former President Bush and former Secretary Rumsfeld in their official capacities. You were advocating on behalf of individuals who argued they were civilians, wrongly classified as enemy combatants of the United States, and your filing was part of your professional responsibility to advocate for your clients. In those petitions, the individuals raised more than a dozen claims for relief, one of which was an allegation the government had sanctioned torture against the individuals, which constituted war crimes under the Alien Tort Statute. The Alien Tort Statute allows courts to hear cases for alleged violations of the law of nations or the treaties of the United States. Apparently, this is what Senator Cornyn was referencing, so to be clear, there was no time where you called President Bush or Secretary Rumsfeld a ‘war criminal.’
Jackson offered Durbin her gratitude, saying “that’s correct.”
Watch above, via Fox News.