The latest light sentence handed down to a registered sex offender by a President Joe Biden-nominated judge is bringing fresh scrutiny to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) record confirming Democrat judges.
Judge Anne Traum, whom Biden nominated to the U.S. District Court for Nevada, on March 23 slapped a registered sex offender with thousands of files of child porn on the wrist with the mandatory minimum penalty — only 60 months (five years) followed by fifteen years of supervised release.
Traum handed down the minimum sentence despite a recommendation from federal prosecutors for 151 months (twelve and a half years) and lifetime supervision, a punishment well within typical sentencing guidelines of 155 to 188 months.
Graham broke with Republicans to confirm Traum, a former public defender, joining moderate Republican Sens. Susan Collins (ME) and Lisa Murkowski (AK).
Traum was confirmed 49 to 47, with Graham’s vote ensuring the vote did not result in a tie, which would have required Vice President Kamala Harris to break unless Graham’s vote pushed one of his other deferential Republican colleagues to join him in opposition.
Before Graham’s confirmation vote, Traum earned notoriety during her 2021 confirmation hearing when she refused to give a yes or no answer repeatedly when asked nine times by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) whether criminal behavior should be forgiven in the name of social justice.
The registered sex offender, William Alan Barragan Diaz, was convicted for receiving child sexual abuse material images and videos after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) forwarded a CyberTip to law enforcement. According to court documents, beginning about June 6, 2024, Diaz downloaded and possessed images and videos of child sexual abuse material.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence and found child sexual abuse material files on his cell phones. Some of the images and videos analyzed were of children under 12 years of age engaged in sexually explicit conduct and intercourse with adults. In total, over 6,200 images and over 400 videos of child sexual abuse material were recovered from the two electronic devices seized from Diaz.
The Diaz sentencing is not the first time Traum slapped a child predator on the wrist.
In January 2026, Judge Traum sentenced another Nevada predator who had repeatedly viewed child pornography — including content of babies — time served followed by ten years of supervised release.
Solomon had only served approximately three days in custody. Prosecutors had recommended 97 months (eight years) followed by lifetime supervision, well within typical sentencing guidelines.
Traum’s latest controversial ruling has introduced another level of scrutiny to Graham’s record, as the South Carolina Senator has come under fire in recent weeks even as he seeks a fifth six-year term.
Graham’s vote for Traum is not isolated. As Breitbart News reported, Graham holds an ignominious place alongside Collins and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in voting to confirm an additional twelve Biden-nominated judges responsible for blocking President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Those Biden judges are blocking Trump from enforcing immigration law, fighting fraud, even implementing tariffs that had successfully reduced the trade imbalance with Communist China and ensured Mexican collaboration to end the pouring of deadly fentanyl into the United States.
Graham is a singular and polarizing, often perplexing, figure in the Senate Republican Conference. A longtime ally of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the lifelong bachelor, who had been described by a Senate colleague as a “bro with no ho,” ran for president in 2016 as a fringe candidate but never qualified for a primary debate stage.
He has since worked to reconcile his relationship with Trump, although he retained his neoconservative bona fides. As Breitbart News reported:
The hawkish, neoconservative Graham, Trump’s 2016 rival-turned-consigliere, regularly boasts of his role as informal advisor to Trump, often sharing photos of their frequent golf outings.
His chummy relationship with Trump despite their fundamental philosophical differences — Graham almost daily lavishes praise upon Trump in a barrage of Fox News appearances seemed orchestrated for an audience of one — kept him from a primary defeat in 2020 even as many South Carolina voters prefer a candidate more aligned with the America First agenda.
The publicity-minded neocon was one of the primary voices encouraging Trump to attack Iran earlier this year after developing a reputation as one of the loudest voices in Washington for foreign aid and intervention into the Middle East, including through USAID-funding — much of which ended up with anti-American terrorist organizations now supporting Iran.
Graham’s foreign focus has earned criticism from Republicans as well as Democrats, including Annie Andrews, a Democrat running to challenge Graham who recorded a video attacking Graham using thinly-veiled references to rumors about Graham’s sexuality.
In late March, Graham was seen at Disney World during a two-week Senate vacation despite an ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown. Graham defended himself, telling TMZ he “was invited to a meeting in South Florida on Friday with Trump official Steve Witkoff” and “went to Orlando to meet friends after.”
Video captured of Graham showed him chatting with a young woman and child. Another photo showed the Senator carrying a Little Mermaid bubble wand.
Polling first reported by Breitbart News shows Graham’s reelection hopes could be in serious trouble, with self-funded businessman Mark Lynch in position to pounce. That poll finds on an initial ballot, Graham is well under 50 percent, at just 41 percent, with Lynch at 21 percent and a third candidate, Paul Dans, at 11 percent.
Despite Graham’s almost universal name ID in the state, 22 percent are undecided, the poll finds. And with Lynch preparing to spend an addition $3.5 million, he is well-positioned to force a runoff.
On an informed ballot, the poll shows Lynch at 34 percent and Graham at 23 percent.
While the South Carolina Republican primary has not yet garnered the same attention, it echoes the Texas Republican Senate primary.
Cornyn, facing two primary challengers in March, was unable to spend himself to victory in the primary, and despite winning a plurality of that vote, faces diminishing odds in runoff as the more conservative Paxton surges against the incumbent.
Could Graham, facing two primary challengers of his own, face a similar fate? Lynch’s spending alone gives South Carolina conservatives hope that Graham’s career in Washington, which began with his election to the House of Representatives in 1994 — when Ace of Base and Boyz II Men topped the charts — could be nearing an end.
Bradley Jaye is Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
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