Wow. This family…
Jim Bob Duggar hasn’t just supported his son Josh Duggar throughout his child porn arrest and trial — he apparently fought for him tooth and nail on the witness stand!
We’d heard Judge Timothy L. Brooks‘ opinion of Jim Bob’s testimony — he called the 19 Kids and Counting star an unreliable witness who was “obviously reluctant to testify against his son.”
But now we have a better idea — because his testimony has been released! In the full transcript the reality patriarch brings uncooperative to a new level, refusing to answer questions, making demands, and even insulting the prosecutor trying to ask him questions.
Related: Josh Duggar’s First FBI Interview Released, And WOW Does He Sound Guilty!
Carly Marshall was the lawyer tasked with doing the questioning this day — and if you thought Jim Bob had a problem with women having their own voices (and money) in his own life, wait until you hear how disrespectful he was to a female prosecutor trying a case against his son!
The transcript in question, obtained by The Sun, is from a pretrial hearing in which the court was trying to determine whether Josh’s previous child molestation admissions should be allowed to be admitted during this case. (Followers of the trial will know it was eventually presented to the jury as family friends gave horrific descriptions of what he admitted doing to their daughters, including one as young as 4 or 5.)
As Carly asked the most basic questions to establish factual information, Jim Bob couldn’t help but interject defenses for his son. She asked which house they lived in at the time of the molestation scandal, and he went off:
“Johnson Road. I’d like to say, too, that, you know, this was a… something for a young man to come forward.”
Yeah, he’s a real gem for admitting he molested children. Crackerjack parenting job there, ace.
Jim Bob continued to cut off Carly as she tried to ask for more info, trying to keep even the judge from hearing what was in those old records, declaring:
“This is a juvenile… It was a juvenile record that was sealed.”
When she told him just to answer the questions he was asked, he continued:
“Right. But you’re taking into consideration this was a sealed case that was expunged by Judge Zimmerman, right?”
Ah yes, when Judge Stacy Zimmerman, the one with ties to Jim Bob’s old buddy, then-Governor Mike Huckabee, ordered the child sex offender records expunged for reasons no one understands even though that’s not protocol. Yeah, it rings a bell.
(If anyone didn’t already assume Jim Bob had something to do with burying his kid’s child molestation report before, this is definitely putting a thumb back on that scale.)
Finally Judge Brooks ordered him to answer the questions. But the disrespect didn’t end there.
Related: Josh Trying To Get Brand New Child Porn Trial On Legal Loophole
Jim Bob was forced to tell the truth, that Josh told him back in 2002 that “he had touched [Jane Does 1 to 4] when they were sleeping on the breast over their clothes” and that there was another time he admitted to “inappropriate touching.” (That was NOT all that he said. Get a reminder of what Jim and Bobye Holt testified HERE.)
When Jim Bob denied remembering anything about Josh having touched an underage girl’s vagina, Carly pulled out the police report, as it had been published in In Touch magazine back in 2015. Jim Bob sniped:
“If you are using an In Touch Magazine article as your case…”
When the judge admonished him again, Jim Bob lashed out:
“I’m not going to allow that. Are you allowing that?”
Isn’t it funny how he keeps turning to the man in the situation as if they’re on the same side, against the prosecution? Just an observation.
Anyway, Carly then asked Jim Bob to read a specific paragraph from the police report to refresh his memory, he refused, saying:
“I’m not going to do that.”
She told him he didn’t have to read it aloud, just to himself so they were on the same page, so to speak. He deflected:
“I did not write the police report. I don’t know what all was put in that. I don’t know who put… you know, I don’t know what the investigator. You will have to bring them in and ask them.”
He then went overboard, getting wildly defensive and blasting the prosecutor as “unprofessional”:
“It was a very difficult time in our family’s life. When we went to the Child Safety Center, they told us this all would be kept confidential. And for you guys to use a tabloid to bring it back up, it’s very unprofessional.”
No, actually bringing up child molestation in this instance, unfortunately for her, is her being very professional — seeing as it’s her job to put creeps like Josh in prison.
And btw, maybe the Child Safety Center is a fine, legitimate non-profit, we’re unfamiliar — but we’re damn sure they don’t have power over the federal government to stop child porn investigations. The fact he felt like he could stop this train by obfuscating and attacking like this… Yeesh.
[Image via TLC/YouTube/Washington County Sheriffs Office.]