Ex-congressional staffer pleads guilty in child porn case
AUSTIN, Texas - A former staffer for Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton has pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography.
The U.S. Justice Department said in a statement Thursday that James Maines Jr. pleaded guilty to knowingly receiving child porn.
The 54-year-old from Mesquite did so Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Horan of the Northern District of Texas in Dallas. He will be sentenced in March.
The department says that as part of his plea, Maines admitted to attempting to forward five images from his email account to his U.S. House account in November 2012. He also admitted to receiving other child exploitation images via the Internet.
Investigators conducting forensic analysis of Maines's computer discovered "child exploitation images" downloaded as early as 2004.