Josh Duggar, the oldest child of the sprawling fundamentalist Christian family that starred in TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” has been arrested by U.S. Marshals in Arkansas.
He is being held at the Washington County Detention Center after being booked at 1:14 p.m. on Thursday. The county sheriff’s office told TPM they “don’t know anything” about his case, as they are just holding him for a federal department.
Duggar is being held for the Department of Homeland Security, according to Fort Smith ABC affiliate KHBS. DHS did not immediately return TPM’s messages.
No bond has been set, according to the detention center.
Duggar appeared before Chief Magistrate Judge Erin Wiedemann at U.S. District Court in Arkansas’ western district at 12 p.m. ET Friday. Duggar’s charges were not read at the arraignment hearing, though he did plead not guilty to “all counts.”
While discussing Duggar’s upcoming detention hearing, Wiedemann mentioned that “given the nature of the charges” against him, he would not be allowed to stay in any residence with minors or where minors may visit, if he is allowed to leave jail before the trial.
Josh Duggar and the rest of his family enjoyed widespread popularity for years as a result of their show, which depicted the day-to-day of a cheerfully pious, enormous clan. That fame cratered in 2015, after allegations surfaced that Josh Duggar molested girls in the early 2000s. It was later discovered that some of the alleged victims were his sisters.
Soon after, Duggar also admitted that he’d cheated on his wife, Anna, through Ashley Madison, a site designed to help people cheat on their spouses or partners.
Duggar also got sued over a real estate deal in 2019 in a dispute he ultimately lost.
Soon after the cancellation of “19 Kids and Counting” in 2015, a spinoff called “Counting On” started to air on TLC in its wake. Josh Duggar’s wife and children are listed as cast members and the show is currently on the air. The couple is still together, and they are expecting their seventh child.
This post has been updated with details from Duggar’s arraignment hearing.
Where is Darwin when we really need him?
33 years, no job, accused of molesting his own sisters and signing up for online escorts on Ashley Madison while married, father of six, expecting their seventh, lives in dad’s garage, was on the “Family Research Council” payroll.
Checks out as the perfect candidate to run against Sarah Huckabee Sanders for the AR (edited) Governor election.
There is a God.
Homeland Security? Can’t wait for this to break.
Religious fundamentalism generally, and Christianism specifically, unsurprisingly produces a large crop of hypocrites including perversion outright. Josh Duggar is just another case in point: no real surprise at all and that includes the silence of his family including those he assaulted.