Josh Duggar Requests Judge to Delay Sentencing in Child Pornography Case: Details


Josh Duggar has requested for a judge to push back his April 5, 2022, sentencing for two counts of child pornography — one for receiving and another for possessing it — by “approximately 30 days,” in court documents obtained by In Touch on Saturday, March 19.

The documents indicate the 34-year-old asked for a 30-day postponement in order to have more time to “pursue additional information and documentation.” The records also indicate that it has become “more difficult scheduling meetings” with the defense attorney due to “certain reasonable COVID-19 precautions understandably instituted at the jail.”

The papers also point out that the inquiry “is not intended to unnecessarily delay or hinder the proceedings,” but instead, to “allow Duggar sufficient time to acquire all relevant information which will be necessary for fully briefing Section 3553 argument, to confer with his counsel and to alleviate certain scheduling issues arising out of unrelated cases.”

The request comes more than two weeks after Duggar spent his birthday alone in the Washington County Detention Center in Arkansas — as no in-person visits were allowed — a source told The Sun on March 3. A jailhouse staffer informed In Touch that the jail has “no specialty birthday meals as a policy ever,” but loved ones were allowed to send gift packages, including food, packs of candy and hygiene products via the jail ATM system.

On February 3, the former 19 Kids and Counting star asked for his December 2021 conviction to be overturned. And if that wasn’t possible, he wanted to request a new trial. His lawyers argued several reasons why they believed the jury wasn’t provided with enough sufficient information from prosecutors that may have helped acquit Duggar.

Prosecutors originally argued that some of the child pornography images discovered on his work computer showed minors under the age of 12, but Duggar’s team said no proof was offered that he “knew that the visual depictions were of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.” The legal team added in its claim that proof of Duggar’s knowledge that he was viewing minors was “a necessary element for conviction of each count.”

Duggar’s motion furthermore argued that there was no evidence the former reality star personally viewed the child pornography images found on his work computer. “Indeed, the evidence at trial established that certain files allegedly found on the HP desktop computer were never viewed by any user of the computer and that all the files at issue had been deleted shortly after being downloaded,” the records read.

Initially, the TLC alum was arrested and taken into custody on April 29, 2021, once a federal grand jury in Arkansas indicted him for “knowingly” receiving illicit images of children under the age of 12.  His trial officially began on November 30 of that year and concluded on December 9 of that year with a conviction of both charges of receiving and possessing child pornography. Duggar faces up to 40 years in prison, with each count carrying a 20-year maximum sentence.

While some of Duggar’s siblings turned against him, his wife Anna Duggar “still loves” him but is “still not certain about her future,” an insider previously told In Touch on January 5. The couple share seven children, with their most recent addition, daughter Madyson, born in October 2021, just one month before Josh’s trial began.