Post by Admin on Dec 9, 2021 15:21:02 GMT -4
Reality TV’s Josh Duggar convicted of child porn possession
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Former reality TV star Josh Duggar was immediately taken into custody Thursday after a federal jury convicted him of downloading and possessing child pornography.
The jury in Fayetteville, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, found the 33-year-old Duggar guilty on one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography. He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count when he’s sentenced.
“Regardless of wealth, social status, or fame, our office will continue to seek out all individuals who seek to abuse children and victimize them through the downloading, possession, and sharing of child pornography,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Fowlkes of the western district of Arkansas, which prosecuted the case.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks said sentencing will happen in about four months, Fayetteville TV station KNWA reported.
“We respect the jury’s verdict and we look forward to continuing this fight on appeal,” said Justin Gelfand, one of Duggar’s defense attorneys.
Duggar and his large Arkansas family starred on TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” until the network canceled the show in 2015 following revelations that he had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. Authorities began investigating the abuse in 2006 after receiving a tip from a family friend but concluded that the statute of limitations on any possible charges had expired.
Duggar’s parents said he had confessed to the fondling and apologized. At the time, Duggar apologized publicly for unspecified behavior and resigned as a lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.
Duggar later apologized for a pornography addiction and for cheating on his wife, calling himself “the biggest hypocrite ever.”
The judge in the child porn case ruled that jurors could hear testimony about how in 2003, Duggar admitted to molesting four girls. A family friend testified that Duggar told her about the abuse.
Federal authorities said they began investigating after a Little Rock police detective found child porn files were being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. A federal agent testified in May that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned.
Duggar’s attorney argued that someone else downloaded or uploaded the images onto Duggar’s computer. But the jury wasn’t swayed.
Duggar’s father Jim Bob Duggar, who also starred on the reality show, is running in a special election for a vacant state Senate seat i n northwestern Arkansas, and the primary election in that race is Tuesday. He previously served in the Arkansas House.
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The move by the attorney general, Letitia James, comes at a critical moment in a criminal inquiry into the former president, who could try to block the demand.
The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, is seeking to question former President Donald J. Trump under oath in a civil fraud investigation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, an unusual move that comes at a critical juncture in a parallel criminal investigation into the former president.
Ms. James, whose office is also participating in the criminal investigation being run by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., wants to question Mr. Trump on Jan. 7 as part of her separate civil inquiry into his business practices.
If Ms. James finds evidence of wrongdoing in the civil inquiry, she could file a lawsuit against Mr. Trump, but she could not file criminal charges.
Her request comes as Mr. Vance is pushing to determine whether Mr. Trump or his family business, the Trump Organization, engaged in criminal fraud by intentionally submitting false property values to potential lenders. Mr. Vance, a Democrat, did not seek re-election and is leaving office at the end of the year. He will be succeeded by Alvin Bragg, a former federal prosecutor elected in November.
And because the two investigations overlap — both Ms. James and Mr. Vance have been focused on whether Mr. Trump inflated his property values to secure financing, and their offices are working together on the criminal inquiry — Mr. Trump could refuse to sit for a deposition once Ms. James formally subpoenas him. Ronald P. Fischetti, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, said in a brief interview on Thursday that he would ask a judge to quash the subpoena.
He is likely to argue that Mr. Trump’s testimony could be unfairly used against him in the criminal investigation, violating the constitutional right against self-incrimination. If a judge sided with Ms. James, Mr. Trump could invoke his Fifth Amendment right and decline to respond to questions.
Still, while that decision could not be used against Mr. Trump in the criminal investigation, it might harm him in Ms. James’s civil inquiry. Jurors are barred from inferring anything from a defendant’s refusal to testify in a criminal case, but the same is not true in a civil inquiry, where Mr. Trump’s silence could be used against him.
News of the move came just hours before Ms. James, a Democrat who had announced a run for governor in New York, said that she would instead seek re-election as state attorney general.
“I have come to the conclusion that I must continue my work as attorney general, she said in a statement. “There are a number of important investigations and cases that are underway, and I intend to finish the job.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly referred to both the criminal and the civil investigations as politically motivated witch hunts and has denied all wrongdoing.
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Mr. Fischetti said that the news of Ms. James’s request had not come as a surprise.
“This is what the A.G. has been doing, working hand in glove with the D.A.’s office,” he said, implying that Ms. James’s decision was political and noting that she intended to seek re-election.
Danny Frost, a spokesman for Mr. Vance, said that Ms. James’s request was “not part of the criminal investigation.” He declined to elaborate and would not say whether Ms. James’s office had notified Mr. Vance’s prosecutors about the request to question Mr. Trump.
A spokesman for Ms. James, whose attempt to question the former president was first reported by The Washington Post, declined to comment.
The criminal investigation, which is focused on Mr. Trump’s statements about the value of his assets, has proceeded in fits and starts for more than three years and is reaching a crucial phase toward the end of Mr. Vance’s tenure.
Over the last several months, the investigators have issued subpoenas for records about Mr. Trump’s properties, and interviewed a banker employed by the former president’s top lender, Deutsche Bank.
Ms. James’s civil investigation into Mr. Trump, which has been underway since March 2019, is focused on some of the same strands as the criminal investigation being overseen by Mr. Vance, and has included scrutiny of similar properties, including Mr. Trump’s Seven Springs Estate in Westchester County.
Last winter, Ms. James was able to obtain a number of documents relating to the inquiry after a judge twice rejected Mr. Trump’s attempts to block their release. Some of the documents were relevant to a conservation easement at the Seven Springs property.
Ms. James was examining then whether the easement — a legal agreement meant to protect a land’s conservation value — was legitimate and whether the Trump Organization had improperly valued the estate, allowing it a $21 million tax deduction to which it should not have been entitled.
Over the course of the investigation, Ms. James’s prosecutors have also scrutinized some of Mr. Trump’s other financial transactions, including the restructuring of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago in 2010.
If Mr. Trump is deposed next year, it would be the second time he has been questioned under oath since leaving office. In October, he was questioned for hours in connection with a lawsuit filed by a group of demonstrators who said Mr. Trump’s bodyguards had attacked them outside Trump Tower in 2015.
That deposition has not yet been released, and it is not clear when it might become public.
