U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear appeal of Josh Duggar’s child pornography conviction

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The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal of the child pornography conviction of Josh Duggar, a member of the Arkansas family known for their presence in reality television and Republican politics.

Duggar, of Springdale, was convicted in December 2021 of possessing child pornography after a jury trial in Fayetteville. U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks sentenced Duggar to 12 ½ years in prison in May 2022, and Duggar’s lawyers appealed the conviction in February 2023.

A three-judge panel from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in August, writing that Duggar would not be allowed to “suppress incriminating statements and get a new trial.”

According to court documents, Duggar downloaded “hundreds of child pornography images” to a computer, and law enforcement tracked the computer’s IP address to a car dealership Duggar owned.

When approached with a search warrant, “without waiting for an explanation, Duggar blurted out, ‘[w]hat is this about? Has somebody been downloading child pornography?’” and then said he had installed file-sharing software on all his electronic devices, according to court documents. The 8th Circuit panel wrote in its decision that these statements worked against him during his trial.

Duggar, 36, is serving his federal prison sentence in Texas. His sentence includes 20 years of supervised release after his prison term ends, including no unsupervised contact with his seven children.

Duggar is the eldest of 19 children in a Northwest Arkansas family that was the focus of a reality television show, “19 Kids and Counting,” from 2008 to 2015. The Duggars’ devout practice of the Independent Baptist denomination of Christianity was a major focus of the show.

“19 Kids and Counting” was canceled after Duggar publicly admitted that he sexually abused four of his sisters and another girl when he was a teenager. A reboot of the show, “Counting On,” ran from 2015 to 2021 and was canceled after Duggar’s arrest for child pornography possession.

The patriarch of the Duggar family, Jim Bob Duggar, was a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003, representing part of Washington County. He made unsuccessful bids for the Republican nominations for U.S. Senate in 2002 and Arkansas Senate in 2006. He ran for another state Senate seat in 2021, announcing his run during his son’s trial. He lost in the GOP primary.

Jim Bob Duggar and his wife, Michelle, endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for the 2008 Republican nomination for president, and Huckabee publicly supported the Duggar family in 2015 after Josh Duggar’s history of sexual abuse came to light.

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