Duggar Attorney Asks Judge to Acquit him of Guilty Verdict, Claiming No Evidence of Guilt

Attorneys for disgraced 19 Kids and Counting star Josh Duggar filed a motion in federal court this week, asserting that the evidence at the trial where he was found guilty of possessing child pornography should never have been enough to acquit him, and requested either a new trial or that he be acquitted altogether.

Duggar is facing 20 years and up to $500,000 in fines after he was found guilty a few months ago, a charge he viciously denies.

The child pornography was found on a computer at work that had a hidden partition, which was accessible by a password that Josh was known to use for several years for his other personal accounts, and whose saved history showed the person browsing personal accounts, downloading pornography, and sending personal messages.

According to the 27-page document, his lawyers argue that even if could be shown that Josh received and possessed child pornography, they utterly failed to prove that it was him who was using it and seeing it, an account of others having access to it.

“The Government failed to adduce any evidence that Duggar “knew that the visual depictions were of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct”—a necessary element for conviction of each count.

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.

Thus, even in the light most favorable to the Government, the jury had no evidence that Duggar personally viewed any specific portion of any of the files allegedly found on the computer. As such, there was no evidence of mens rea from which the jury could base its guilty verdict as to each count.”

Furthermore, they claim that the government violated several rules of evidentiary procedure by delaying turning over exhibits they possessed that could have helped him in his trial, and that investigators botched the investigation by only focussing on him, while failing to consider other possible suspects, such as a former employee and even his own brothers.

“This deprived the defense of the ability to impeach these witnesses with evidence that yet another person had access to passwords. Had the defense possessed this information when it became available, it would have meaningfully affected trial strategy and provided additional fodder for cross-examination of Government witnesses.”

The motion concludes:

“This Court’s ruling concerning Williams’ testimony deprived Duggar of the opportunity to present relevant, material favorable evidence in his favor and this ruling was disproportionate to any legitimate or evidentiary purpose. As such, it violated Duggar’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights and this Court should grant him a new trial.”

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