Josh Duggar allegedly hid his “trove” of sexually explicit images of children between 7 and 9 years old on his work computer behind an innocent-looking screenshot picture of his pregnant wife Anna and their six children.
That’s what federal prosecutors claim, at least, in a new set of court documents filed after part of their investigation into the disgraced former reality TV star on charges of downloading and possessing pornographic images of children under 12 years old.
Obtained by DailyMail.com and first made public in a published report on Tuesday, the damning court documents paint a disturbing picture of the Arkansas native’s alleged child porn interests.
The screenshot anecdote is among the most disturbing. Apparently, federal investigators seized Duggar’s Hewlett-Packard desktop computer when they first raided his office at his Arkansas car dealership back in 2019. Upon investigating the computer for illegal downloads, they allegedly discovered “sickening images of prepubescent children engaged in sex acts” hidden behind the smiling picture of Josh’s family. The hard drive had plenty more illegal downloads supposedly found there.
According to investigators, Josh is alleged to have used BitTorrent, an online peer-to-peer file sharing network “where users search and download files from other members while simultaneously making their own files available for sharing.”
The Little Rock Police Department had long been investigating BitTorrent’s apparent role in users sharing and accessing child pornography in cases previously unrelated to Duggar. In late 2019, a detective and a network specialist working with that department were finally able to identify a specific IP address of one user who had allegedly uploaded 65 images and one video of underage girls being raped and engaging in other sex acts against their will.
OMG…
That IP address was reportedly based in northwest Arkansas, and the Little Rock PD passed that info on to FBI Special Agent Gerald Faulkner for further investigation. Faulkner, in turn, served a federal summons on Ozarks Go, a local internet provider in that area of Arkansas, to obtain account information on the alleged user based on their unique IP address. Quickly, Faulkner determined the account was registered to Duggar’s used car dealership, Wholesale Motors, in the city of Springdale.
Days later, an undercover agent from Homeland Security visited the business posing as a potential used car buyer, where he spotted Duggar himself using an iPhone and the desktop computer in question. That was enough for the FBI to swoop in with a search warrant for the devices, and the court docs explain what happened next:
“Agents encountered the defendant and two other men standing outside on the car lot. Inside the small building on the lot, which operated as the business’s main office, law enforcement located an HP Desktop Computer with an image of the defendant and his family on its screen. A subsequent forensic examination of that device and other devices seized from the defendant and the car lot pursuant to the warrant uncovered evidence demonstrating that the defendant used the HP Desktop to download from the internet and, subsequently, possess multiple files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”
Wow!
And that, then, is where we are today. Duggar is now facing a two-count federal indictment on downloading and possessing child pornography. He initially spent seven days in jail back in April and early May after his initial arrest, before being fitted with an ankle monitor and bailed into home detention. He is reportedly currently staying with a family friend in the Springdale area.
Duggar has denied the allegations against him here, even though he’s previously admitted to having a pornography addiction. If convicted, the embattled former beloved TV star faces 25 years in prison on each of the two counts in the indictment. His trial is now set to begin in November after Duggar’s attorneys asked for and were granted earlier this summer.
What a sad, scary, terrible story…
We’ll keep you updated as this thing winds its way through the justice system.
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