The Josh Duggar trial continues today (Wednesday), with closing statement being delivered by both Josh’s defense and the prosecution. Yesterday, Josh’s defense rested after calling only two witnesses (both of whom were shredded on the stand by the prosecution, in The Ashley‘s opinion). It is believed that the case will go to the jury today so they can begin deliberations, so it’s possible a verdict could be determined as early as today.

The Ashley— who has been in the Arkansas courtroom covering the trial— has been bringing you live updates from the trial and will continue to do so below. ( Click here and here to read coverage from the first few days of court.) Please note that The Ashley was not in the courtroom today.

To catch up on what happened in court on Tuesday, click here.

The members of the Duggar Family who are present in court today include:

• Anna Duggar who, as always, arrived hand-in-hand with Josh as they entered the courthouse today. She was dressed in a black dress she’s worn several times to court. 
• Derick Dillard (who has been there every day of the trial). This time, however, his wife Jill Duggar Dillard is also in attendance. (She was named as a potential witness, so it’s possible that’s why she hadn’t attended the trial before today.) Anna hugged Jill when she came into court, according to The Sun. Josh came to the galley and hugged Jill and shook Derick’s hand.  While Derick has never revealed why he is at the trial, he did tweet on Wednesday that he is “praying for justice this morning.”
• Joy and Austin Forsyth were back again. Austin has attended every day of the trial, and Joy has been present  almost every day.
• Jason Duggar is back for his third day attending court.
• Jim Bob Duggar attended court for the second time. (His first day attending was Tuesday.) He was captured by The Sun‘s photographers smiling and mugging for the camera on his way into court. Jim Bob’s wife (and Josh’s mother) Michelle has never attended court.
• Justin Duggar was back for the first time since Thursday. This time, he brought his wife Claire, as well as Clare’s parents Hilary (who attended once before) and Robert. The Sun noted that Hilary sat next to Anna in the front row. (Today Justin and Hilary were very solemn, unlike when they appeared in and outside of court on Thursday, smiling and with Justin giving a thumbs-up for the cameras.)
• Jessa Duggar Seewald attended for the second time. She sat in the front row with Jill, Derick and Jim Bob and Hilary Spivey.

UPDATE 1: 

• Court began with closing arguments from Prosecutor Carly Marshall. Prosecutor Marshall seemed to be playing off something Josh Duggar’s attorney said in opening statements, likening this case to “a classic, old-fashioned whodunnit.” “Is this really a who done it?” she asked the jury, pointing out that the evidence presented points to Josh downloading, viewing and possessing Child Sex Abuse (CSA) materials.  
• According to The Sun, Prosecutor Marshall then reminded the jury that they heard from Detective Amber Kalmer of the Little Rock Police Department, who, through special law enforcement software, was alerted on May 14, 2019 that a user and IP address in Springdale, Arkansas, had sent a video file and a ZIP file containing about 65 CSA images. The jury was then given a description of the video file, and once again shown stills of the video. (The Ashley is not going into detail regarding the CSA video, except that it contained two minor girls and an adult male.) Prosecutor Marshall stated that Officer Kalmer was alerted again the next day that the same IP address had once again downloaded CSA materials.

• Prosecutor Marshall reminded the jury that Agent Faulkner eventually identified the IP address as belonging to Josh Duggar. She also reminded them that, when Josh’s Wholesale Motorcars car lot was raided on November 8, 2019, Josh was the first person to bring up “child p0rnography,” asking the investigators why they were there and specifically asking, “What is this about? Has someone downloaded child p0rnography?” 
• Next, she reminded the jury that Josh spoke to Agent Faulkner and another agent in their truck on the day of the raid. In an audio recording from that interview, Josh can be heard saying, “I’m not denying guilt. I don’t want to say I’m guilty or not.”
• Prosecutor Marshall then seemed to focus on the defense’s suggestion that it could have been another Wholesale Motorcars employee who downloaded and viewed the CSA materials. She reminded them that it was proven in court earlier that no other employees were working at the time of the downloads/viewings. The Sun reports that she specifically named the employees the defense had brought up previously: Randall Barry (whose phone was analyzed but not confiscated) was proven to have not started working at the lot until after the CSA material downloads took place; William Mize, whose phone was analyzed and cleared; and former Duggar family friend Caleb Williams (who was proven to be out of the state during the time in question). 

UPDATE 2: 

• Next, Prosecutor Marshall focused on the testimony of their expert witness, James Fottrell. As The Ashley previously reported, James testified over the course of several days, stating that a Linux partition had been downloaded onto Josh’s HP desktop work computer on May 11, 2019, using the password “JoshuaJJD.” (JJD are Josh’s initials, by the way.) A photo taken with Josh’s iPhone 11 puts Josh at the car lot that day. James had also testified that the partition password (used essentially to access the dark web), was “Intel1988,” a password Josh had used for years.  
• The Sun reports that Prosecutor Marshall reminded the jury that multiple experts testified during the trial that someone had to be physically present to set up the Linux partition on that computer. 
• Next up for discussion was the fact that a photo taken at the car lot by Josh’s iPhone puts him at the car lot at 4:14 p.m. on May 14, 2019. Just 35 minutes later, he texted Anna that he was “stuck” at work because he had a customer. A few minutes after sending that text, the webcam collection of CSA materials was downloaded to the TOR browser on Josh’s computer. (It was viewed right after the download.) About 50 minutes later, two movie torrent files containing CSA were downloaded. A text sent from Josh to someone interested in a car puts Josh at the car lot at the same time the CSA was being viewed.
• Prosecutor Marshall then discussed the evidence from May 15 and 16, 2019. She discussed which CSA materials were downloaded/viewed that day (showing one of the CSA images to the jury.) She reminded the jury that Josh Duggar was present on May 15 “before, during and after” the CSA files were being downloaded/viewed. On May 16, another CSA file was downloaded. 

Just a few days after all of this went down, Anna posted this ominous photo and caption to her Instagram account.

 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by A N N A D U G G A R (@annaduggar)

• Next, she reminded the jury that the partition with the CSA materials was used again on June 22, 2019. A work document (about a car, which was shown to the court last week), had Josh’s name on it, listed as the salesperson. On that same day, Josh’s iPhone sent texts placing him at the car lot. This is relevant because it proves Josh was present every day that partition was used (whether it was to download CSA materials or not.)
• Prosecutor Marshall told the jury that, beyond reasonable doubt, the evidence presented shows that Josh viewed, possessed and was aware he had CSA files on his computer. She asked the jury, who was at the car lot every time the partition was accessed and CSAM downloaded? She named Josh as that person.
• Finally, Prosecutor Marshall stated that, although Josh’s defense team will try to make it seem like there is still a question as to who was responsible for the CSA materials, she asked the jury to consider whether a hacking/remote access incident was likely, given the evidence that shows that it wasn’t. The Sun reports that Prosecutor Marshall told the jury that the “facts, evidence and common sense” all show that Josh was the person who received and possessed the CSA materials, and that they should hold Josh accountable and find him guilty. 
• KNWA‘s in-court reporter tweeted that the “Judge has called a break before the defense speaks. Prosecutor Dustin Roberts expected to respond after that, as the prosecution gets a 2nd chance because they have burden of proof.”

UPDATE 3: 

• Josh’s defense attorney Justin Gelfand began to present the defense’s closing argument. According to The Sun, Josh does not have the prove anything; instead the prosecution had to make it so that the jury unanimously had no doubt of his guilt.
• According to The Sun, Justin told the jury to speak up if they had even one doubt of Josh’s guilt. “You have the courage to say no,” he told them.
• He then reminded the jury that the prosecution’s case depends on Josh being behind that computer.  “If not, their case crumbles like a house of cards,” he told them, according to The Sun.
• He told the jury that both expert witnesses– Michele Bush and James Fottrell—admitted that remote access was possible. He then went on to list the reasons remote access could have occurred. According to KNWA reporter Anna Darling, the defense spent about an hour on its closing arguments.
• KNWA reports that in his closing argument, Josh’s attorney claimed that the prosecutors were so “star struck” by Josh Duggar that they “refused to look for anything else” in terms of other possible suspects. 
• “Everything is on the line, the stakes don’t get any higher, we ask that you find him not guilty,” Josh’s attorney told the jury.
• He told the jury that, if they believe remote access was possible, they have an obligation to return a “not guilty” verdict, because that’s reasonable doubt. 

UPDATE 4: 

• The prosecution got another chance to speak after the defense’s closing arguments. 
• According to KNWA, Prosecutor Dustin Roberts told the jury that the defense’s strategy during this trial has been to “throw the truth against the wall and see what sticks.” He stated that Josh’s attorney is trying to get them “looking anywhere but the facts. This is not a complicated case.”
• He pointed out that Josh’s car lot was an unlikely target of a random hacker. He pointed out that a hacker had no reason to install the Linux partition, and that the only person who benefitted from that install was Josh.
• Prosecutor Roberts once again discredited the defense’s “expert” witness, Michele Bush, stating that their expert witness, James Fottrell, is the guy who teaches the classes Michele takes to become an “expert.” 
• He pointed out that the defense attorneys have tried to make it seem normal that Josh (or anyone) would have a TOR browser, but that it is not common and it allows a user to do awful things such as view CSA materials or even buy a child, The Sun reports. 
• He again reminded the jury that “the bad stuff didn’t happen when [Josh] wasn’t there.”
• Finally, Prosecutor Roberts brought up the password used to get into the partition with the CSA materials: Intel1988. He reminded them that Josh used “Intel1988” as his password for his bank accounts and other accounts. He stated that it made no sense that a “hacker” would download the Linux partition and use a “signature” password Josh has used for numerous other accounts. “How does that make sense?” he asked the jury.
• He played two recordings for the jury: one in which Josh explains that peer-to-peer software was on his iPhone, laptop and office computer. They also replayed the recording of Josh saying he didn’t want to say if he was guilty or innocent.
• He closed things by saying, “Mr. Duggar has had his day in court. Now it’s time to hold him accountable. This ‘invisible man’ theory crumbles. It’s time to convict Josh Duggar.”

UPDATE 5: 

• As of about 12:15 p.m. (CST), the jury has gone into deliberation. 
• As of 3:15 p.m. (CST) the jury is still deliberating. 

UPDATE 6:

• The jury is still deliberating; however, at around 3:45 p.m. (CST), the jury has asked to listen in the courtroom to the recording of Josh’s interview with Homeland Security Investigators on the day of the car lot raid in November 2019. The recording— which has been played in court several times already— has Josh telling the investigators that he has an HP computer that is password-protected in the car lot office. In the recording, Josh tells investigators that his desktop computer is “split” and discussed peer-to-peer. He then asked why the agents were raiding his lot.
• The recording has the agents telling Josh about “child exploitation” and Josh asks if they’re saying that’s what the raid is about, and he asks if there was “something” on his devices, according to The Sun.
• The Sun also reports that one juror wanted a calendar but the judge said no.

UPDATE 7:

• According to The Sun, the jury has not yet reached a verdict and has asked to return tomorrow to court to deliberate.
• KNWA‘s reporter stated that Judge Brooks called the jury back around 5 p.m. for an update.
• Deliberation will continue tomorrow (Thursday) starting at 8:30 a.m.