Josh Duggar was all smiles with wife Anna on Monday when he appeared in court for a hearing in his child pornography case.
Despite a judge denying four out of five of the defense’s motions to suppress evidence and get Josh’s child pornography case dismissed, the former 19 Kids and Counting star appeared to be in good spirits walking hand in hand with pregnant wife Anna by his side.
Anna is due with the couple’s seventh child this fall.
Josh has been charged with receipt of, and possession of child pornography. Prosecutors believe Josh had more than 200 pornographic images of children on his computer, including child sex abuse images and videos of minors as young as 18 months up to 12 years old (the same ages as all six of Josh’s children with Anna).
The 33-year-old has pleaded not guilty to both counts. If convicted, he could face up to 40 years in prison and fines up to $250,000 on each of the two counts.
Following his release from jail in May, Josh was granted “unlimited access” with the couple’s six children — Mackynzie, 11, Michael, 10, Marcus, 8, Meredith, 6, Mason, 4, and Maryella, 22 months — as long as pregnant Anna is also present. He is living under the supervision of family friends, and is not allowed to see any other minor children, including his many nieces and nephews.
View this post on Instagram
Josh has a long history of sexual abuse. TLC’s hit show, 19 Kids and Counting was canceled in 2015 after allegations surfaced that Josh, the oldest of the 19 children, had molested five girls, including four of his sisters. Months later, he admitted to cheating on Anna and having an addiction to pornography.
In November of 2019, Duggar’s then-business, a used car lot, was raided by Homeland Security Investigations after first being flagged by a Little Rock, Ark. police investigator in May of that same year. Three password-protected electronic devices were obtained during that search warrant containing dozens of images depicting nude minors and child sex abuse materials.
Special Agent Gerald Faulkner revealed extensive new details about Duggar’s arrest during a hearing earlier this year.
Faulkner, who has worked more than 1,000 child exploitation cases in the last 11 years, testified that materials found on a computer belonging to Josh Duggar included files that were the “top five worst I’ve ever had to examine.” Faulkner wouldn’t even read the names of the downloaded files, which were graphic and disturbing.
Investigators found a program on Josh’s desktop called Covenant Eyes, which allows a user to “quit porn” by reporting to an accountability partner — in this case wife Anna — if the user visits porn sites. Duggar allegedly installed a Linux partition, which divided the computer’s hard drive into two isolated sections to get around triggering a Covenant Eyes report.
Despite the overwhelming evidence against Josh and the history of his abuse, a source told People that Anna believes her husband “is innocent.”
A jury trial in Josh’s child pornography case is set to begin on Nov. 30 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
