Josh Duggar appears in a post-conviction mugshot taken by the Washington County, Arkansas jail on Dec. 9, 2021.
Former conservative activist and reality television star Josh Duggar appeared Thursday afternoon in a new jailhouse mugshot after his conviction on federal child pornography charges.
Duggar, 33, of Springdale, Ark., was listed as having been re-booked into the Washington County Jail in northwestern Arkansas near Fayetteville at 12:07 p.m. on Dec. 9, facility records show. The 6’0″, 228-pound man was on a “courtesy hold” for the federal government, the records continued. It is not uncommon for local jails to house federal inmates while federal charges or a federal period of incarceration is pending.
As Law&Crime previously reported, a federal jury found Duggar guilty of one count each of receiving child pornography and possessing child pornography — in other words, guilty as charged under an original indictment. He faces up to four decades in federal prison and/or fines in excess of half a million dollars.
“This verdict also demonstrates that no person is above the law,” said Clay Fowlkes, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. “Regardless of wealth, social status, or fame, our office will continue to seek out all individuals who seek to abuse children and victimize them through the downloading, possession, and sharing of child pornography.”
A press release from Fowlkes’ office says a sentencing date has not yet been set, but the judge indicated the proceeding would take place in around four months.
Agents “detected Duggar’s activity during an undercover investigation” into online file sharing, the press release continued. The activity pointed to Duggar’s car lot. A desktop computer seized there, “as well as other evidence” dubbed by prosecutors as “[s]ignificant,” ultimately “pointed to Duggar’s presence at the times of the offenses,” the authorities said. That evidence included “pictures that Duggar took on his phone that geolocated at or near the car lot.”
“Duggar also sent multiple timestamped text messages to various individuals that indicated he was at the car lot at the relevant times; the messages were sent, and the iPhone pictures were created, at times within minutes of when the child sexual abuse material was downloaded or displayed on the desktop computer,” prosecutors continued. “Additionally, he was the only paid employee on the lot at those times.”
According to court documents, the government’s case involved 85 separate exhibits, many of them files obtained from Duggar’s electronic devices, and many of which were marked as explicitly “obscene.” Duggar’s attorneys submitted 87 exhibits, court records show.
Other court records indicate that the jury began deliberations at 12:17 p.m. on Wednesday. They asked for a recording of an interview with Duggar himself to be re-played — and it was, in its entirety — before jurors retired to deliberate once again. Court recessed for the day around 5:00 p.m. The jurors returned for about an hour and a hate Thursday before returning a verdict at 10:07 a.m.
Duggar was booked into the local jail almost exactly two hours later.
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