Anna Duggar Forwarded Josh Duggar a Message Describing His Prison Sentence as ‘Absolutely Crazy’

A newly surfaced email is putting Anna Duggar back in the spotlight.

According to People, a 2022 email Anna sent to her incarcerated husband Josh Duggar included a forwarded message from a friend that characterized his conviction as unjust. “I just can’t even wrap my mind around this system of ours,” the correspondence stated. “[W]hat purpose does it serve to put a citizen away for that long, especially for a crime that was actually victimless?”

“I am incensed by the ridiculousness of it ALL,” the message stated, per People, who also reported his sentence was described by the person who wrote the email as “absolutely crazy.”

The Duggar family’s legal troubles became national news when In Touch was the first to break the story of Josh’s underage sexual molestation scandal back in May 2015, a revelation that led to the cancellation of the family’s TLC series.

Per People, a Homeland Security investigation found that the former 19 Kids and Counting star had set up hidden, password-protected storage on his computer to repeatedly download child sexual abuse material in 2019. At sentencing, federal agent Gerald Faulkner described one of the files Josh accessed as a “top five worst of the worst” he had encountered in his entire career. Josh was ultimately convicted in 2021 and sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison.

According to the Department of Justice, crimes involving child sexual abuse material are never victimless. The DOJ has stated that the distribution of such content perpetuates ongoing harm and re-victimization of the children depicted, who face a lifetime of trauma knowing the material exists permanently online, per the article.

Josh’s time behind bars has only gotten more complicated. His release was originally set for August 2032, but it has now been pushed back three times — most recently to February 2, 2033, People reports. Meanwhile, his fourth and final appeal of the conviction is still pending before a federal court.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or visit www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.