--- title: Former Congressional Staffer Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges description: A former U.S. congressional staffer from Texas pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of receiving child pornography. canonical: https://time.com/4134879/congressional-staffer-texas-child-porn/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-03T17:10:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:05:40.806Z article:section: Politics og:title: Former Congressional Staffer Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges og:description: A former U.S. congressional staffer from Texas pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of receiving child pornography. og:url: https://time.com/4134879/congressional-staffer-texas-child-porn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc0cd8b98365c675/69887262f887dc5adae9371d/capital-building.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 186359104 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Former Congressional Staffer Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges twitter:description: A former U.S. congressional staffer from Texas pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of receiving child pornography. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc0cd8b98365c675/69887262f887dc5adae9371d/capital-building.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Former Congressional Staffer Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 3, 2015 5:10 PM UTC  Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Capitol Building in Washington D.C.Tim Martin—Getty Images/Aurora Creative  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 3, 2015 5:10 PM UTC A former staffer to a Texas congressman pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of receiving child pornography. In his guilty plea James Maines Jr., 54, admitted that in November 2012 he attempted to forward five child exploitation images he had gotten off the Internet from his personal email account to his U.S. House of Representatives account, [according to a Department of Justice release](http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-us-congressional-staffer-pleads-guilty-receiving-child-pornography). The Department of Justice says that it uncovered child exploitation images on Maines’s computer that he had downloaded as early as 2004. Maines served as the deputy district director for Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX6). Maines is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16, 2016. Barton’s office did not immediately release a statement ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4134879/congressional-staffer-texas-child-porn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4134879/congressional-staffer-texas-child-porn/"},"headline":"Former Congressional Staffer Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges","datePublished":"2015-12-03T17:10:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:05:40.806Z","description":"James Maines Jr was deputy district director for Texas Rep. Joe Barton","url":"https://time.com/4134879/congressional-staffer-texas-child-porn/","keywords":["Congress","justice"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc0cd8b98365c675/69887262f887dc5adae9371d/capital-building.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc0cd8b98365c675/69887262f887dc5adae9371d/capital-building.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"186359104","caption":"186359104","creditText":"Tim Martin—Getty Images/Aurora Creative","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4134879/congressional-staffer-texas-child-porn/","name":"Former Congressional Staffer Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges"}}]}] ```