Josh Duggars lawyers filed two motions to dismiss: could this actually happen?
In 2019, Homeland Security raided Josh Duggar’s place of business, the car dealership where he works in Arkansas. There were always rumors about the dealership and how there were shady financials and perhaps even money laundering happening, and people thought at the time that the raid was about undocumented immigrants or fraud. But no, the raid was about Josh Duggar accessing dark-web sites with images of the sexual abuse of children. Duggar was arrested several months ago in connection with the images found on his work computer in 2019. I bring up the timeline because from what we’ve seen so far, Homeland Security got all of their proverbial ducks in a row on this case. They wanted this case bulletproof, which is likely why it took so long for Duggar to be arrested and charged after the 2019 raid. According to Duggar’s lawyers though, the case is some kind of mess and it should be dismissed.
Josh Duggar’s family has filed two motions to dismiss his child porn case, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE. In motions filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas on Friday, Duggar’s attorneys argue that his case should be dismissed because of technicalities over who was running the Department of Homeland Security at the time of their investigation. They also say investigators failed to “preserve potentially exculpatory evidence.”
Duggar pleaded not guilty to charges of receiving and possessing child pornography in April. Prosecutors said that the former reality TV personality had more than 200 images of children on his computer.
A virtual hearing was held in May, where agent Gerald Faulkner provided a summary of DHS’ forensic analysis of Duggar’s devices, including an HP computer and a Macbook that included a backup of an iPhone. Faulkner said multiple torrent files had been downloaded from a child abuse series he described as within the “top five of the worst of the worst” that he has ever examined.
Agents conducted a search of Duggar’s Springdale, Arkansas, car dealership in November 2019, including his electronic devices. Agents also conducted interviews of people who had access to those devices, and did not find child pornography on any of their devices.
In one of the motions filed Friday, Duggar’s lawyers suggest that child pornography could have been transferred from one of those devices onto Duggar’s, but claim investigators “preserved no evidence whatsoever” from the witnesses’ devices. Duggar’s lawyers argue that that evidence could have been “exculpatory.”
“The problem is that [DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations division] may have not identified evidence of child pornography during the field examination of these devices — but failed to preserve other potentially exculpatory evidence,” the motion says. “For example, the devices may have contained content as to whether these devices had any relevant internet search history, any evidence associated with the so-called ‘dark web’ and/or the Bit Torrent network, any metadata that might pinpoint the whereabouts of the devices at various dates and times, and the list goes on,” the motion says.
While Duggar’s criminal trial was initially set to begin in early July, it was delayed in June to November 30 after the defense said it needed more time to forensically analyze all of the electronic devices involved in the investigation.
From what I understand, Duggar’s lawyers are arguing that someone else could have downloaded the images onto his work computer, backup laptop and phone, and that while DHS investigated that possibility, DHS did not provide the evidence of other people’s child-abuse-free computers. That argument seems bullsh-tty to me, but I’m actually pretty concerned that the court has been too obsequious to Josh’s wants and needs. The court gave him unlimited access to his children, for God’s sake. Anyway, I hope DHS prepared their case properly and I hope the prosecutor is really good.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.
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