U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a powerful Texas Republican, used the weight of his status to falsely malign Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday. Cornyn accused Judge Jackson of calling then-President George W. Bush and his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, “war criminals,” despite the fact that – as legal experts stress – she did not.
He doubled down later, even after the legal experts weighed in, debunking his allegation.
“I don’t know you well but I’ve been impressed by our interaction, and you’ve been gracious and charming,” Cornyn told Judge Jackson before attempting to malign her. “Why in the world would you call Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and George W. Bush ‘war criminals’ in a legal filing?”
Judge Jackson looked confused upon hearing the accusation.
“It seems so out of character for you,” he added.
“Senator you may be, are you talking about habeas petitions that I –” Jackson responded.
“I’m talking about when you were representing a member of the Taliban, and the Dept. of Defense identified him as an intelligence officer of the Taliban and you referred to the Secretary of Defense and the sitting President of the United States as ‘war criminals,'” he charged. “Why would you do something like that – it seems so out of character.”
Judge Jackson replied, “Senator, I don’t remember that particular reference, and I was representing my clients and making arguments. I’d have to take a look at what you meant – I did not intend to disparage the President or the Secretary of Defense.”
Angered, Cornyn dispensed with the niceties.
“Well being a war criminal has huge ramifications, you could be subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, hauled before that international tribunal and charged for war crimes, so it’s not a casual comment I would suggest.”
What is a “casual comment” made without much research is Cornyn’s accusation, which is false, according to legal experts.
University of Texas School of Law law professor Steve Vladeck, an expert on national security law and the prosecution of war crimes, explains, basically, that she did not call them “war criminals,” but cited their offices and in the complaint stated they had committed criminal acts of war.
“While a public defender,” Vladeck writes that Judge Jackson “filed a habeas petition on behalf of a [Guantanimo Bay] detainee alleging that he had been tortured in violation of int’l law; Bush and Rumsfeld were respondents.”
Chairman Durbin was forced to get to the bottom of the reckless allegation, one that shot like a rocket across the far right-wing of social media.
Vladeck declared Cornyn’s accusations are, “at the very least, misleading.” (Read his full explanation starting here.)
Even after all the explanations debunking Cornyn’s false claim the Texas Republican took to Twitter to double down: “If you accuse someone of war crimes you are calling them war criminals.”
Others just accepted as fact that Bush and (the late) Donald Rumsfeld are war criminals:
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