Josh Duggar, who appeared in TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” has been found guilty after facing two counts of downloading and possessing child pornography.
via: People
He faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines after his conviction on both counts — though, because possession is a lesser included offense, he will only be sentenced for the receipt crime.
His sentencing is expected in four months but a date hasn’t been scheduled pending a pre-sentence investigation.
Duggar, 33, has been on trial in federal court in Fayetteville, Arkansas, since last week with his wife and some family members watching daily from the front row.
By the time the jury began deliberating, prosecutors and the defense had painted two totally separate portraits of Duggar: either he was a sophisticated criminal seeking out depraved content about children or he was a naive local businessman with a homeschooled GED unwittingly exploited by someone else. Jurors had to decide who to believe.
Their verdict comes about two years after Homeland Security agents first searched Duggar’s Wholesale Motorcars in 2019, seizing two personal devices and a work desktop that became key to the case.
The 19 Kids and Counting alum was subsequently indicted earlier this year on both of his charges, with prosecutors at his trial showing evidence he had devised an elaborate hidden system on his work computer with which to view the child pornography over three days in May 2019.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks announced that sentencing will take place in about four months.
