Josh Duggar child pornography trial: Week ends with questioning of DOJ senior

Josh Duggar’s child pornography trial got underway this week in northwest Arkansas, and much of the trial’s discussion has centered on the myriad ways the “19 Kids and Counting” star allegedly attempted to cover his tracks. 

The 33-year-old father of seven is charged with two counts of receiving and possessing child pornography and faces up to 20 years in prison on each count if convicted.

Here is a timeline of the trial this week:

EVIDENCE OF JOSH DUGGAR’S PAST MOLESTATION SCANDAL CAN BE INTRODUCED AT TRIAL, JUDGE RULES

Wednesday, Dec. 1

Before Duggar’s trial began on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks rejected a motion by Duggar’s attorneys to prevent jurors from hearing evidence that he admitted to molesting four girls nearly 20 years ago. 

In court, Duggar’s defense attorneys have argued that Duggar was not the one who downloaded the alleged inappropriate material onto his HP all-in-one desktop computer at the family’s used car dealership.

The defense contends that since no child pornography was found on Duggar’s personal iPhone or MacBook Pro laptop, he clearly couldn’t have been responsible for the material found on his work device and that someone else placed the images on the computer.

However, federal prosecutors presented a trove of evidence to the contrary, including exhibits and time stamps that supposedly show a breadcrumb trail of Duggar’s alleged activity.

Thursday, Dec. 2

Duggar was joined by his wife as he made his way into court Thursday.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Agent Gerald Faulkner took the stand Thursday morning.

A KNWA reporter in the courtroom said on Twitter that Faulkner was questioned about why some cellphones were taken as evidence and others were not. The defense questioned Faulkner about a different employee who Faulkner said was not looked into because he was allegedly in another state at the time of the alleged crimes, The Sun reported. Faulkner added that he did not explore the possibility of remote access, per the outlet.

When the prosecution questioned Faulkner, the agent reportedly said if there was evidence of hacking or of the other employee being at the location, it would have been investigated. He claimed agents did not have a legal cause to search the employee’s phone.

Video and photo elements of alleged child sexual abuse material was also presented to the jury detailing Duggar’s alleged online presence.

James Fottrell, the director of the Department of Justice for Child Exploitation, took the stand on Thursday and spoke to the extent the Tor dark web browser Duggar allegedly used to cover his tracks could be used to surf the web anonymously, according to The Sun.

JOSH DUGGAR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY TRIAL: EVERYTHING TO KNOW

During testimony, Fottrell explained that in order for Linux to be installed on any computer, someone must physically initiate the action and must physically be present at device boot up.

The court was then shown a cache folder for Tor that included recently used downloads, and a Linux partition revealed Duggar’s name and address.

The court was then shown thumbnail files of folders where alleged images of minors deemed sexually suggestive had been…