Josh Duggar over the past several months has made several attempts to delay going to trial and even dismiss his two felony counts on child pornography charges in recent months. The former 19 Kids and Counting star’s team had most recently put forth an argument related to some appointees Donald Trump had previously made. However, a judge wrote a lengthy opinion in response to the requests his legal team had put forth. Yet one of those portions, in particular, yielded a rather blunt comment from the judge at its start. Only four words were needed in fact:
This motion is frivolous.
The gist of the initial motion was that Kevin McAleenan and later Chad Wolf, an appointee from Donald Trump, were both removed of their position of Acting Secretary of Homeland Security after their appointments had been deemed not lawful. Then, as part of this case, the prosecution tried to argue the indictment should be “dismissed” related to the "unlawful" appointments. That will not be happening. To note, while blunt at the start, clearly the judge had more to say than the four short words listed above. Fifteen pages of words in fact, including:
There is no legal support for Mr. Duggar’s claim that an indictment handed down by a properly impaneled grand jury would be subject to dismissal due to an alleged Appointments Clause violation. Department of Homeland Security agents are sworn to enforce federal criminal statutes, and the Court is not aware of any reason why their authority to investigate crimes would somehow be undermined if the acting secretary of their agency were improperly appointed.
The entire opinion can be read via US Courts, and the full document relates to a slew of motions that Josh Duggar’s legal team had filed and that had been denied. Previously, there were four motions that were denied and one was waiting on opinion. The judge had weighed in orally but this new document gives more detail about a slew of topics the former TLC personality’s team had put forth, including the fact they had been hoping to suppress photos of his hands and feet.
A lot of the longer opinion relates to evidence that Josh Duggar spoke or allegedly willingly gave during the time of a raid on his business back in 2019. The judge has agreed with Federal Agents that Duggar was informed that he was “free to leave” and not under arrest during the raid, but the former reality star chose to say. While his lawyers argued evidence should be suppressed, the judge’s opinion states that the tone of the interview was “conversational” and that Duggar repeatedly refused to answer questions when he didn’t feel like it. Per the judge:
The total circumstances surrounding the interview demonstrates Duggar’s understanding that he was free to refuse to answer questions and to stop the questioning when he chose.
As per the hand and feet photos, if you can remember back when these motions were first filed, Duggar’s legal team had hoped to get some images suppressed that agents had taken of his hands and feet. The defense has contended those images show a scar on Josh Duggar’s hand that corresponds with prints found on the computer that had child pornography downloads on it and that the photos were taken because Duggar's body parts were plainly visible.
The defense, however, believed those were taken unwillingly should be suppressed. The judge disagreed, also noting: “There is no legal authority to suggest agents needed a warrant before they could photograph Mr. Duggar’s hands and feet.”
With plenty of the evidence still intact and not suppressed in this case, Josh Duggar is expected to go on trial starting on November 30. That was a move from the original trial date, which had initially been expected to go down this summer. In the time since his arrest way back last spring, the former 19 Kids and Counting star has spent most of his time out on bail and staying at a third party residence, where his wife Anna Duggar allegedly often frequents.
