As the prosecution rested their case on Monday, December 6 after presenting sufficient evidence to the Jury in Josh Duggar’s child pornography case, his defense made a move. As People reports, Josh’s legal team asked the judge to acquit him of all the charges.
According to the former reality TV star’s lawyer, Justin Gelfand, he argued that the prosecution did not provide “sufficient evidence of known possession” or “evidence of actually knowing receipt by Mr. Duggar of child pornography.” He claimed that computer forensic analyst James Fottrell provided insufficient evidence during his testimony.
You can read about Fottrell’s testimony here.
Judge Says There Was ‘Well More Than Sufficient Evidence’ as Josh Duggar’s Defense Attempts Acquittal
Gelfand argued that Fottrell didn’t prove that the cache file found on Josh Duggar’s work computer was received or possessed by him. However, Assistant United States Attorney Carly Marshall disagreed, saying in response, “I believe that evidence sufficient to go to the jury has been heard.”
After summarizing Fottrell’s evidence, the judge presiding over the trial, Judge Timothy L. Brooks, agreed with Marshall, saying he believed that there was “well more than sufficient evidence” and satisfied the conditions to move forward. He then denied the defense’s acquittal.
As Mamas Uncut previously reported, Fottrell was responsible for combing through Josh Duggar’s personal MacBook, his iPhone, and his HP desktop that was housed in his work office. During his testimony, Fottrell revealed that while searching the saved passwords on Josh’s devices he discovered that the password used to protect a portion of his HP desktop, the portion that housed the child pornography images, was the same password once used to protect the family’s Instagram account at one time.
Additionally, according to People, Fottrell also testified that text messages and geotagged images place Duggar’s cell phone “at or near his work computer at the time the Linux partition was being downloaded and that the child porn was being accessed.”
As People reports, “The windows of time ranged from just two minutes to over an hour. In one example, Fottrell said Duggar’s phone had photos taken on the car lot at 5:58 p.m. on May 13 — 11 minutes after the Linux partition was installed on the desktop.”
Several family members have sat with Josh’s wife, Anna Duggar, during the week-long trial. It is still expected that Jill Duggar Dillard will testify during the trial, however, whether she is for the prosecution or the defense is still unknown.