Josh Duggar is trying his hardest to muddy the legal waters.
The former reality star was arrested in late April on two charges of child pornography possession and faces up to 40 years in jail if convicted.
As you likely know by now, he’s accused of downloading sexually graphic videos of children under age 12, and as young as 18 months.
Just truly awful stuff.
He’s free on bail, but holed up in the Arkansas home of two third-party custodians appointed by a judge.
Duggar isn’t allowed to be near any minors by himself – not even his own children (six, going on seven).
The 33-year old father of six hasn’t said anything in public since being taken into custody back on April 29.
Over the last several days, however, Duggar’s legal team has been doing some serious talking – and maneuvering.
First, they managed to postpone Josh’s trial to November after it had been initially scheduled to begin on July 6.
Now, Duggar’s attorneys have filed a Motion to Compel.
This document filed by his team requests the government provide them with “an undated screen shot."
It also wants access to “all law enforcement reports and related discovery prepared by the Little Rock.”
We’ll delve into the legalese a bit more below, but the legal ask boils down to this:
The defense is claiming they can’t properly defend their client because the feds are dragging their feet on turning over pressing evidence.
According to The Sun, which obtained these legal papers:
The Government disclosed to the defense a screen shot.
However, the screen shot does not identify what it is a screen shot of.
The Government has not provided any information concerning the ‘Summary’ or ‘Investigative Activity.’
Josh’s lawyers say they have “repeatedly attempted to obtain this unambiguously discoverable evidence,” but the prosecutorrs have “refused to produce this evidence.”
A lot of the proof that Josh allegedly downloaded certain pieces of pornography is technical in nature.
Federal agents often rely on different kinds of software to detect when a suspected perpetator has accessed websites that offer sexually explicit material of children.
In this instance, Duggar says he’s aware that authorities have logs of his supposedly illegal activity.
Josh’s office was raided, and his workplace computer first accessed by authorities, in the spring of 2019.
As a result, he now says he can’t mount a proper self-defense without more details related to these logs.
States the aforementioned motion:
“Duggar is entitled to this evidence, not only for the alleged download by Detective Amber Kalmer which allegedly led to HSI’s involvement in this case, but also for the alleged downloads by Brandon King and David Warren and their respective law enforcement entities.”
Elsewhere, Duggar’s attorney claims the government is also refusing to disclose to them police reports and other evidence from the Little Rock, Arkansas police department.
The disgraced TLC star’s attorney appears to be aiming his wrath specifically at Special Agent Faulkner, who spoke at Josh’s detention hearing.
You might recall Faulkner as the individual who said Duggar’s alleged misdeeds rank as the "top five worst of the worst" things he’s ever seen during his time on the job.
One video mentioned in the agent’s testimony was titled "Daisy’s Destruction," which depicts the rape of an 18-month-old toddler.
Like we said at the outset of this piece:
Just truly awful stuff.
These new court papers allege Faulkner omitted the “alleged investigative activities of two other law enforcement agencies” when testifying at the hearing under oath.
In perhaps the most shocking and damning portion of their motion, the defense team says it believes the evidence shouldn’t be allowed and they question Faulkner’s “credibility.”
Duggar’s lawyers want their own forensics expert to have access to the data authorities plan to use again Josh in court.
We’ll see if a judge grants any of these requests.
Until the accused pedophile’s trial gets underway, however, we may not know a great deal about what the jury can expect to hear.
What we do know is, this is not what someone does if they’re planning on a plea deal – at least not yet.
In the meantime, many observers will continue to ask one question when it comes to Josh Duggar:
For the love of all things holy, how has his wife not left him yet?