Thread by @AnnaDarlingTV

Here's my break down of today's closing arguments in #JoshDuggar's trial. I had to sit in the overflow room for the first half of the day.

Judge Brooks started by reminding the jury to make a decision based on the facts and without sympathy or prejudice.

Here's what the prosecution had to prove to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

Please note that I use "child pornography" in this b/c that is the legal term used by Judge Brooks in court. I see and hear you all who say "child sexual abuse materials" is the better term.

The prosecution began by referring back to the defenses's opening arguments by asking: "Is this really a case of whodunnit?"

They argued the computer, family photo on the HP work computer, passwords and more all points back to #JoshDuggar

They then recapped all the investigator and expert testimony heard throughout the trial.

They referenced the exact dates and times the CSAM was being downloaded and viewed and how #JoshDuggar's phone placed him at the car lot at the exact same time.

The defense argued at the beginning that #JoshDuggar was homeschooled and didn't have advanced knowledge of computers, but testimony from close friends Jim Holt and Clint Branham proved that otherwise.

They relied heavily on the testimony that someone had to be physically behind the computer in order to download the Linux partition, along with all the CSAM.

And that evidence showed #JoshDuggar was at the car lot every time the partition and CSAM were accessed

The defense began by reiterating that they have no burden to proof and that #JoshDuggar is innocent until proven guilty.

Gelfand equated the weight of the decision of the jury to "putting a child under the knife for a serious surgery"

The defense pretty much solely relied on the testimony of digital forensics expert Michele Bush.

He said Bush and Fottrell (the guy who said someone had to be present at the compute) agreed to the possibility of remote access.

He reminded the jury of the reasons Bush had for the probability of remote access including a universal plug & play router, how she described it as a 'hit & run', and how none of #JoshDuggar's other personal devices had CSAM on them

He slammed the prosecution and investigators for not investigating the router, for taking too long to execute the search warrant and he called the investigators "star struck" at the notion of prosecuting #JoshDuggar, that they intentionally did not investigate all avenues.

After an hour, the prosecution got the last word in closing arguments.

They brought up a detail not mentioned at all in the defense's statements: the password for the Linux partition had been used by #JoshDuggar for the past 5 years on other accounts. Linking it solely to him.

The defense tried to argue once again that the Tor browser can be innocently used like any other browser.

The prosecution again argued that the anonymity of Tor is the key to it's shadiness. And multiple experts in child exploitation said it is the most common avenue for CSAM

The prosecution said an elite hacker wouldn't go through all this trouble to take down one person, that it's basically preposterous to try and pin this on some random person in the world that we can't track down, when so much evidence puts #Duggar at the scene.

At around 12:15, the jury went into deliberations.

At 2:25 the jury came back with a request to listen to the entire audio recording between #JoshDuggar and Special Agent Gerald Faulkner from November 2019 when the search warrant was executed

This is the same interview Faulkner testified that #JoshDuggar asked if this investigation was about child pornography before the interview and recording and even started.

In the recording when Faulkner explains his job, Duggar replies "I respect that, that's good"

When Faulkner explained how they found his device through peer to peer monitoring, #Duggar asked "Did it mark this IP address"

He also knew what peer to peer and the Tor browser were (indicating to me that he does have computer knowledge more than the defense implied)

Faulkner said in the recording he's "amazed" at what the media is putting him through

#Duggar told him "I appreciate the work that you do" and that he's "not denying guilt but that he doesn't want to say the wrong thing"

I would describe Duggar as calm throughout the interview

The jury asked for a calendar dating from today through May 2019. That request was denied by the attorneys for both sides, and ultimately by Judge Brooks.

The jury went back until they were called again at 5pm and said they want to recess until tomorrow morning.

I did manage to snag a spot in the gallery for the second half of the day. I definitely saw Jim Bob #Duggar along with Jill and Derek Dillard...there were others who appeared close with the family but not sure who they were