A federal judge in California has determined that Visa will remain a defendant in a lawsuit filed by 34 women who allege that MindGeek, the Montreal-based parent company of Pornhub and other online porn sites, featured explicit videos of them while they were still minors.

U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney of the Central District of California denied Visa's motion to remove the credit card company from the lawsuit.

The South Dakota attorney general has closed its investigation into billionaire T. Denny Sanford for possession of child pornography and is not filing charges, according to a notice the office sent to a judge Friday.

The office “has completed its investigation” and “has determined that there are no prosecutable offenses within the jurisdiction of the State of South Dakota,” deputy attorney general Brent Kempema wrote.

The first two days of Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson have been preoccupied, in large part, by a contentious debate over the judge’s sentencing in child pornography cases.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have accused Jackson of displaying “a consistent pattern of giving child porn offenders lighter sentences,” as Sen. Marsha Blackburn said. In making their case, Republicans compared Jackson’s sentences with the federal sentencing guidelines and/or the recommendations of government prosecutors.

When asked whether they agreed with Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) point that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson had imposed very lenient sentences on people possessing child pornography – prison terms far below the federal guidelines and what the prosecutors had requested -- several GOP senators said yes, and they were “very concerned” about a judge who was so soft on people who had committed such vile crimes.

Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, ripped into Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing, tying the nominee to a wide range of conservative grievances. But the lawmaker’s accusations appeared to often be based on quotes taken out of context. Here’s a closer look at some of her apparent sources.

Blackburn linked Jackson to the controversy over transgender athletes and women’s sports.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson opened the second day of her confirmation hearing Tuesday with a forceful defense of her record of sentencing child pornography offenders, pushing back against a recurring Republican attack line leveled against her.

Under questioning from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jackson was asked to address a claim by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Monday that her treatment of sentencing child sex offenders showed an “alarming pattern” of leniency. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham voiced his frustrations with previous Supreme Court confirmation hearings on Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the high court.

The South Carolina Republican relitigated controversial moments from the confirmation hearings of judicial nominees, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whom Graham said was treated poorly when she was questioned about her Catholic faith by committee member Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

At Monday’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) listed seven child pornography cases in which President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, sentenced the convicted defendant to a lesser sentence than federal guidelines recommended and prosecution requested.

Sen. Hawley summarized the findings of the seven cases regarding child pornography charges presided over by Jackson during her district court tenure, in which she had discretion in her sentencing.

Apple’s tools for flagging child pornography and identifying explicit photos in kids’ messages caused backlash and confusion. In an exclusive interview, Apple software chief Craig Federighi sat down with WSJ’s Joanna Stern to defend the technology and explain how it will work.

Officials from the United States, Britain and South Korea described the network as one of the largest child pornography operations they had encountered to date.

Called Welcome To Video, the website relied on the bitcoin cryptocurrency to sell access to 250,000 videos depicting child sexual abuse, authorities said, including footage of extremely young children being raped. Its upload page specifically stated, “Do not upload adult porn.”