Josh Duggar’s legal team has been busy in recent weeks as the former 19 Kids and Counting’s star preps for trial. The eldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar was arrested on one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography back in April. Since then, his legal team successfully managed to push back the trial date and have filed other related motions, including one they hope will get the trial dismissed. Oddly enough, a Donald Trump decision is cited as the reason behind the most recent motion.
Though Josh Duggar was officially arrested in April of 2021, an investigation had been ongoing for quite some time -- since 2019 in fact. This is germane because the new motion filed by his legal team notes that as the investigation was being handled the two people in charge, Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, were both placed into the position by President Donald Trump.
However, it was determined later that Trump’s decision to appoint both men to the position of Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Investigations was actually not done in an appropriate manner, according to the Government Accountability Office. Federal judges later agreed and Chad Wolf's tenure was described as "unlawful." Peter Gaynor briefly took over the role before President Joe Biden made his own appointments. Now, President Trump's previous decisions have apparently become a focal point in the Duggar case.
Basically, Josh Duggar’s team has argued that because Donald Trump’s actions in appointing the two to Homeland Security were later found to be unlawful, the actions of the department itself during this time should not be upheld either. Duggar’s lawyer Justin Gelfand actually wrote a 14-page motion about this, with the crux being the team feels the case should be dismissed (via Law & Crime):
As the actions by DHS HSI in this case were all conducted under the authority of individuals who were acting as Officers of the United States in violation of both the Appointments Clause and the applicable federal statutory scheme for temporary officeholders, the investigation proceeded without lawful authority. Because Appointments Clause violations are structural in nature, Duggar need not show prejudice to obtain relief.
This isn’t the first time Josh Duggar’s legal team has filed paperwork related to the case, which is expected to kick off in November of this year. An appeal resulted in delaying the trial, which was originally expected to kick off this summer, so that Justin Gelfand and co. could spend more time looking through evidence. A separate motion also was filed after the team believed some evidence had been withheld as well.
As part of the filings Friday, the legal team is looking to suppress evidence related to certain statements made about the case. There also seems to be an argument over Josh Duggar wanting to use his iPhone to call his lawyer whenever federal agents came calling in 2019 as well. Duggar’s legal team says the phone was confiscated instead.
Currently, Josh Duggar is out on bail and staying at a third party home belonging to some church pals of Jim Bob and Michelle. His wife Anna Duggar has been alleged to be spending a lot of time there while he awaits trial. In addition, as part of his bail rules, Duggar can see his children, though supervision is required. During his bail hearing, a Homeland Security agent described some of the child pornography found on a computer at the TLC star's workplace among "the worst" he'd ever seen.
