US v. Miltier: Miltier pleaded guilty to receiving and possessing child pornography. Agents found Miltier by tracing the IP address of a computer that was offering child pornography for download on a peer-to-peer network. Miltier lived at the same residence and “admitted responsibility for the images agents downloaded but denied intentionally sharing” the images or any others. At sentencing, he argued his offense level should be reduced under USSG 2G2.2(b)(1) because his conduct was limited to receipt and he “did not intend to traffic in, or distribute, such material.” The district court rejected that argument and sentenced Miltier within the resulting Guideline range.
On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Miltier’s sentence. The court noted that 2G2.2(b)(1) “expressly excludes all ‘conduct’ that goes beyond mere ‘receipt or solicitation.’” Any distribution, regardless of whether it was intentional or not, takes the conduct outside of that provision’s scope. The court rejected Miltier’s argument that such a reading rendered language about intent to distribute superfluous, as that only came into play if the conduct itself did not include distribution. In addition, it did not matter that such unknowing distribution would be insufficient to sustain a conviction for distribution of child pornography.
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