News on the Josh Duggar court case front has slowed in recent weeks as the former 19 Kids and Counting’s legal team had asked to push back the start date on the trial. The team didn’t succeed in pushing the case back to 2022, but it did get it pushed back a few months. Now, that same legal team is arguing information was withheld and are requesting more documentation from prosecutors.
Josh Duggar’s legal team -- which we previously learned is led by Fayetteville’s Story Law Firm, specifically Travis Story and Justin Gelfand -- states it was unable to obtain requested information related to a screenshot the Little Rock police department says came from an IP address attributed to Duggar. That screenshot is one of the pieces mentioned along with other reports the legal team is claiming it was denied access to, despite requests.
In a new filing (via The Sun), Josh Duggar’s legal team is claiming the aforementioned evidence has been withheld. The new filing argues the Government has “refused” to share the “evidence” with the defense. In addition, the filing is claiming evidence given at Duggar's bail hearing this spring from Special Agent Gerald Faulkner should be left out of the trial given he reportedly did not mention other law branches that had allegedly been involved in gathering evidence. In a previous hearing, Faulkner had called the nearly 200 pornography images that led led to Duggar's arrest "in the top five of the worst of the worst that I've ever had to examine." The filing indicates that other evidence has allegedly not been disclosed, either, and that the team should be entitled to see the evidence as part of discovery.
The Government disclosed to the defense a screen shot. However, the screen shot does not identify what it is a screen shot of and the Government has not provided any information concerning the ‘Summary' or ‘Investigative Activity.’
A lot of this is complicated, but the basic idea is that Josh Duggar’s legal team is still filing motions (this one in particular was filed Monday) and still looking into the evidence that was previously used to arrest their client on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. If sentenced Duggar could face up to 40 years in prison.
Josh Duggar’s team has managed to delay the trial so far. It was expected to begin on July 6th originally. After his legal team filed a motion saying they needed more time to look through the evidence, there was some back and forth. Originally, Duggars’ legal team wanted to wait until 2022 to begin, but the new trial is expected to kick off on November 30, should no other motions change that.
Meanwhile, Josh Duggar has been out on bail for months, but has made headline for staying in a third party home that may have a connection to his wife Anna Duggar. That home is also the home of friends his famous parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar may know through their church community. Duggar is able to see his six kids with Anna, though he must be supervised.
We’ll keep you updated if more news related to the case breaks. In the aftermath, the 19 Kids and Counting spinoff Counting On has also been cancelled by TLC.
