’19 Kids and Counting’ Eldest Josh Duggar Facing Child Pornography Charges
Josh Duggar, the eldest of the Duggar family featured on TLC's "19 Kids and Counting," has been arrested and charged with federal child pornography charges.
According to PEOPLE, Duggar was arrested by Homeland Security Thursday afternoon and lodged in the Washington County Jail in Fayetteville, Ark. At the time of his booking, his charges were not listed on the jail's website - the site simply said, "holding for other department."
Duggar appeared in court Friday morning, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which his attorney asked not be read in court, PEOPLE reports.
Arkansas news station 40/29 News reports that they obtained a copy of the federal indictment which accuses Duggar of "knowingly received child pornography and possessing it in May 2019."
If convicted, Duggar faces 20 years in prison in federal prison per count. He could also be charged up to $250,000 in fines per count.
The judge in the case said that if Duggar is awarded bail, he would need to live in a residence with a third-party custodian who would ensure that he stuck to the conditions of his bond. He also would not be allowed to live in any home where there are children, according to 40/29 News.
Duggar's arrest comes less than a week after his wife, Anna, announced that the couple are expecting their seventh child via an Instagram post.
This isn't the first time that Duggar has been accused of crimes against children. In 2015, a 2006 police report was unearthed that showed that Duggar had been investigated for inappropriately touching five young girls when he was a teenager. Due to statute of limitations, Duggar was not charged with a crime in those cases. After that information came to light, TLC pulled episodes of the family's show before canceling it entirely in July of 2015.