Federal prosecutors told a judge on Wednesday that former “19 Kids and Counting” reality TV star Josh Duggar had more than 200 obscene images of underaged children, including images of child sexual assault, downloaded to his computer, and some of the images were of children as young as 5 years old.
The prosecutors, from the Dept. of Homeland Security, according to TMZ, “say witnesses, including friends and family, brought up Josh’s alleged addiction to porn in interviews with law enforcement.”
The sexual abuse material dates back to a raid conducted in November of 2019. There has been no statement from the DOJ explaining why it took so long to arrest the 33-year old, or if anyone in the Trump administration had been protecting him.
The website Radar published testimony from Homeland Security Special Agent Gerald Faulkner.
“In May of 2019, [an Arkansas police officer] identified a computer participating in the known sharing of photos and videos of child pornography,” Faulkner said, claiming the computer contained one two-minute video showing two underage females and a male performing sexual acts on children, as well as 65 images of a female “consistent with child pornography.”
Radar also reports that during the 2019 raid “Duggar was reportedly not informed of the reason for the investigation at the time,” but “he is said to have asked authorities if someone had downloaded child pornography onto his computer.”
Faulkner said that when he asked Josh about the explicit content of children – reportedly ages 5 to 10 – that was found on his computer, Duggar responded, “I’d rather not answer that question.”
Duggar is the father of six children, with a seventh on the way. He remains in jail while a judge considers if he should be allowed out on bail.
This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change.