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Josh Duggar: Was His Home Raided By the FBI?
By Tyler Johnson
Strange news out of Arkansas today, as an anonymous source claims that Counting On reality star/pariah Josh Duggar's home was raided by the FBI on Saturday night. The report originated on Facebook and was later reported on the Patheos website. And what was the alleged cause of this visit from federal agents in Arkansas? Well, that's not entirely clear at the moment, but not surprisingly, there's been a good deal of conjecture on social media, most of it related to Josh's controversial past. Here's what we know about the situation thus far: An insider claims that Josh Duggar's home in Arkansas was raided by the FBI on Saturday, November 17. Details are scarce at the moment, but if the rumors are true, this would be quite an embarrassing situation for his famous family. 2. A Checkered Past
If you're reading this post, you're familiar with the Duggars' oldest child and the controversy surrounding him. Josh, of course, has been at involved in numerous scandals in the past, at times narrowly avoiding prosecution.
While he was still in his teens, Josh molested five young girls, four of whom were his sisters. Even more disturbing to fans was the fact that these crimes remained under wraps for more than a decade as the family decided to deal with this "in house."
4. A Family Affair
Insiders say Josh received a bizarre punishment of sorts from church elders, but his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, helped to hide his crimes from the authorities.
Josh was forced to shave his head, and he was briefly shunned by his community, but he avoided jail time, and his sex crimes remained hidden from the public until In Touch Weekly published an exposé in 2015.
6. It Never Ends
In the years since, Josh has been involved in several other sex scandals, including revelations that he used the website Ashley Madison and attempted to cheat on his wife, Anna Duggar. (There are accusations that he did cheat with at least one porn star, but he has denied this and the claims have not been confirmed independently.)
One thing that is not disputed is this: Not long after the molestation scandal was revealed, it was reported that Josh was a client of the affair-facilitating website Ashley Madison.
8. The End of a Career
The succession of scandals put an end to Josh's careers as both a reality star and a Washington lobbyist. Not only was he exposed as a child abuser, but the biggest hypocrite ever (his words).
These days, Josh works at a used car dealership owned by his family. TLC executives have (officially or unofficially) prohibited him from appearing on the Duggars' reality show, Counting On.
10. A Court Regular
Josh has filed several suits against the various groups that helped bring his crimes to the public's attention, including police in Springdale, Arkansas.
Now, a new round of reports claims that the 31-year-old father of five is experiencing further trouble with the law.
12. Reliable Source?
The report originated in a Facebook group dedicated to Duggar gossip ... yeah, we know. Be that as it may, it's noting that often times interesting tidbits of information surrounding the secretive family are revealed this way and turn out to be legitimate.
At the moment, details are scarce, but the most common theory seems to be that Josh is involved in some sort of pornography ring.
14. Lawyerly Gossip
The source claims that news of the raid comes from an Arkansas attorney with inside knowledge of the situation.
The information aligns with an earlier report published by the Crazy Days and Nights blog, a site with a reputation for breaking big stories as blind items.
16. Anna's Pain
Some fans also believe that loyal and long-suffering wife Anna Duggar has subtly indicated that something is amiss on her social media pages.
Josh's oft-maligned wife, who is currently pregnant with the couple's sixth child, turned off comments on her Instagram page over the weekend.
18. Change of Heart
They appear to be back on now, but some who are watching the situation closely believe Anna became deeply upset about something over the weekend.
As several instagram users have pointed out, Anna didn't even turn off her comments in the wake of Josh's previous sex scandals, but she did in this case.
20. A Wide-Reaching Scandal?
There's been at least one unconfirmed report that the situation is tied to the recent arrest of Arizona politician Paul Petersen.
Petersen will soon stand trial for human trafficking, and he is reported to have connections to multiple powerful families in Northwest Arkansas.
22. Conflicting Information
For obvious reasons, the Duggars' harshest critics have been eager to run with this story, but there's reason to believe the conjecture is bogus.
For instance, news of the raid has yet to be picked up by more mainstream media outlets, such as local news stations or even TMZ.
24. One Possibility
Of course, it's possible that the authorities who conducted the raid have an interest in keeping it quiet. For obvious reasons, the Duggars would be happy to assist them in that.
But it seems more likely that Josh is still at home in Arkansas, and his crimes remain unpunished. If you're a Counting On fan, you're probably aware that the Duggars are very big on rules. In fact, rules are pretty much the glue that holds the entire Duggar universe together. Think of any aspect of the human experience, and you can be sure the Duggars have a whole host of rules and regulations in place to prevent their kids from enjoying it too much. There are the obvious ones, of course, such as the Duggar courtship rules which prohibit all premarital physical contact beyond hand-holding. (And even the hand-holding has a time limit. We wish we were joking.) And let's not forget the infamous Duggar dress code. It's slightly more liberal (sorry, we know that's a four-letter word in Duggar Country) than the courtship rules, but it still requires unmarried women and girls to wear long skirts at all times -- even while playing sports or engaging in other physical activities. But in recent years, the younger generation has been casting aside the rules set in stone by Jim Bob and Michelle. This phenomenon has manifested in rebellions both big and small. One of the most obvious examples is Jinger Duggar's decision to wear pants in direct defiance of the dress code formulated by her mother. But more subtle acts of defiance against Jim Bob's regime are taking place all the time. Take, for example, Anna Duggar's decision to expose her kids to the very edgiest material the television world had to offer. We're talking, of course, about The Brady Bunch. Yes, the Bradies might seem pretty tame by today's standards, but the Duggars are raised to believe that all secular entertainment is the Devil's Content. So you can imagine the surprise of some fans when Anna revealed that she and her husband -- the infamous Josh Duggar -- recently took their kids to visit the Brady Bunch house. As you may recall, the Duggars recently traveled to LA to visit Jinger, who moved to SoCal earlier this year. While they were in the area, Anna and Josh swung by the famous domicile where Marcia got clocked with a football and Cousin Oliver mysteriously vanished. "We enjoyed visiting the ‘Brady Bunch’ house while our family visited Jinger & Jeremy in CA a few weeks ago!" Anna captioned the above pic. "Our kiddos have enjoyed watching old episodes of the family tv show — it was a fun stop on our family vacation!" Fans were flummoxed, as most Duggar diehards are well aware of the ban on entertainment that's any edgier than Davey & Goliath cartoons. And what h-e-double-hockey-sticks was Jim Bob doing there?! "Oh ok I was thinking you guys don’t watch tv," wrote one commenter. "Do these kids know who the Brady Bunch is?" another asked. These are interesting questions -- but the answer might be disappointingly dull. As you know, TLC has been the Duggars' home network throughout their time as reality stars. The network also plays host to a new reality series titled A Very Brady Renovation that focuses on -- you guessed it -- the Brady Bunch house in LA. So it's possible that Anna was just serving her corporate overlords by posting a biut of mandatory sponsored content. And that's sad, because a lot of fans apparently related to Anna's love for the story of a lovely lady: "My children love to watch those old reruns too, as well as Full House," one follower commented. "It so hard to find quality programming for children since we don’t watch Disney anymore because it continues to show things that don’t match our values." Wait ... The Brady Bunch and Full House are the only scripted shows that match your values? What values would those be -- comedy that's not actually funny? An affinity for dead spouses who are never spoken of again? That's pretty dark, Karen!
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