Josh Duggar's friends and family told law enforcement he's dealing with a porn addiction ... according to the feds, who claim his computer was chock full of disturbing images.
The "19 Kids and Counting" star appeared over Zoom for a court hearing Wednesday in his child pornography case. During the hearing, an agent from the Dept. of Homeland Security said Josh's computer had more than 200 images involving naked minors and child sex abuse material. The agent said some of the children were as young as 5.
The feds say witnesses, including friends and family, brought up Josh's alleged addiction to porn in interviews with law enforcement.
However, Josh's defense asked the agent if there's evidence Duggar had looked at the alleged images, and the agent said he hadn't "directly" seen Josh checking out child porn.
TMZ broke the story ... Josh was hit with charges of receiving and possessing child porn following last month's arrest by federal agents in Arkansas. He's pled not guilty.
In Wednesday's court hearing, the feds claimed authorities identified a computer with videos and photos of child porn in May 2019 -- a few months later they claim they connected Josh to the computer using the IP address.
Remember, the Springdale, Arkansas car dealership where Josh works was raided by the feds in November 2019.
DHS agents seized a computer from Josh's office, plus his iPhone and a MacBook from inside an RV during that raid, and the feds say child porn was on the HP computer.
Josh, who is facing up to 20 years behind bars and fines of up to $250k on each count, wants to be released from jail, on bond, pending a trial ... claiming he's too famous to be a flight risk. The judge has yet to rule on that request.
Echinoderm_only on May 5th, 2021 at 22:48 UTC »
Where’s dexter when you need him.
PumpkinPieIsGreat on May 5th, 2021 at 21:56 UTC »
Under 5... how do you even look at that in that way? They're so young. Just children. I want to vomit. I really want to vomit.
Pretend-Vacation-813 on May 5th, 2021 at 21:47 UTC »
His lawyer asked the agent if he could prove Josh actually viewed the pictures. Well asshole, the images didn’t just magically appear onto his computer. They got there somewhere and his friends and family already admitted he has an addiction. You do the math.