Content Warning: Discussion of sexual abuse
Josh Duggar’s conviction on charges of possessing and receiving child sexual abuse material officially buried the swindle that his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, have perpetrated on this country for the better part of two decades. It is now clear that while making us think that they were a quirky, if extremely conservative, Christian family, they were actually covering up their failure to properly address Josh’s fondling of his sisters and other acquaintances when he was a teenager. In so doing, they almost certainly put Josh on the path that led to his conviction on Thursday.
But if this massive swindle was officially buried on Thursday, the final nail in the coffin was hammered in on Monday, the fourth day of the trial. A longtime family friend, Bobye Holt, testified that in 2003, Josh had confessed to the sexual assaults dating back to 2002. In so doing, Holt admitted for the first time what anyone who has followed this sordid story has known for some time—Jim Bob and Michelle were well aware of their son’s depravities when Discovery first “discovered” their family later in 2003.
Holt is the wife of former Arkansas state representative and state senator Jim Holt, who was the Republican nominee for Senate in 2004 against Blanche Lincoln. She testified that on March 30, 2003, she and her husband—then a member of the state senate—were called to the Duggars' home in Springdale. In the presence of both sets of parents, Josh admitted to touching four underage girls whom we now know to be his sisters and one of their babysitters—in some cases, this occurred when he had a girl on his lap during Bible-reading time. On other occasions, he did this while they were asleep.
According to the Daily Mail and The Sun, the Duggars and Holts had been friends for 36 years, dating back to when Jim Bob Duggar and Jim Holt were in high school. Josh had been courting the Holts’ daughter for some time; they’d been on several supervised dates. The Holts, like the Duggars, are devout fundamentalist Baptists. It looked like Josh was well on the way to marrying the Holts’ daughter—until March 30. From The Sun:
Bobye told the jury that she visited the Duggar's home when Josh was 15, and at that time he confessed to touching a 5-year-old girl inappropriately.
"We have been friends with the Duggars for 36 years. Our children were best friends," she told the courtroom.
"Our oldest was Josh's girlfriend in November of 2002. It was formal. They were 14."
Bobye continued: "On March 23, 2003, Mr. Duggar asked us to come over for an important matter.
"They took us to their bedroom. Josh was on the floor."
According to Bobye, Josh admitted to inappropriately touching several girls when he was "12 to 15 years old."
According to the Daily Mail, both sets of parents agreed that Josh had to break off his relationship with the Holts’ daughter ahead of being sent to a facility for troubled youth. According to Buzzfeed, Josh frequently visited the Holts in Little Rock over the years, and revealed further details of his abuse—this time involving a five-year-old.
Later, one of Holt’s Facebook followers thanked her for having the strength to testify, saying, “Finally, someone from their world spoke up.” She replied that “we’ve been screaming from the rooftops for 18+ years but no one would believe us.” She also revealed that they hadn’t talked to the Duggars since 2006.
Josh’s defense attorneys had fought to keep Holt from testifying, per E! and local ABC affiliate KHBS. During pretrial hearings, Josh’s lawyers claimed that the Holts were acting as part of a church group and Arkansas law on clergy privilege precluded Holt from testifying about anything Josh said to her. Federal prosecutors disagreed, citing claims from Holt herself that the conversation had nothing to do with church roles. They also contended that Holt’s testimony would show Josh’s propensity for child molestation.
This testimony proves how warped Jim Bob and Michelle’s moral compass really is. For one, during the Duggars’ interview with Megyn Kelly in 2015, Jim Bob claimed that Josh’s actions were no big deal—merely “inappropriate touching.” But based on Holt’s testimony, Jim Bob and Michelle knew that they had no choice but to break off the courtship with the Holts’ daughter. For once, Jim Bob and Michelle did what they were morally and legally required to do. And yet, they lied on national television about it.
Based on the timeline, when the Duggars allowed Discovery Health to film the first in a series of specials about them, they did so mere months after a full-on crisis. We already knew from the moment this story broke in 2015 that the Duggars were pulling the wool over Discovery’s eyes. But now we have sworn testimony to back it up.
Looking at this, I’m reminded about the Duggars’ strict dress code—no shorts or tank tops for either sex, no pants for women, and no skirts or dresses above the knee. They justified it by claiming baring the thigh was no different from being naked and ran the risk of “defrauding” someone by stirring up lustful thoughts. Well, Holt’s testimony confirmed what we have known since 2015—the Duggars have been the ones doing the defrauding, and the only difference between them and James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the teen who opened fire on his Oxford, Michigan, high school, is money.
It also proves that by failing to get help for Josh, Jim Bob and Michelle put him on a path where Josh faces anywhere from 11 to 14 years in federal prison under federal sentencing guidelines. He will likely spend the rest of his life on Arkansas’ sex offender registry, and face a lengthy period of supervised release. By all rights, Jim Bob shouldn’t be thinking about a run for state senate. He should have been facing charges himself, and it’s damned obscene that he’ll likely never face earthly justice.