A federal judge denied Josh Duggar‘s appeal to vacate his possession of child sexual abuse material conviction.
After being sentenced to more than 12 years in prison following his 2021 conviction for crimes against kids, Josh argued that his constitutional rights had been violated.
Court records obtained by PEOPLE show that U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks denied the appeal because Josh filed his motion too late. Judge Brooks wrote that one copy of the appeal was received by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on July 29, 2025, more than a month after the deadline. The court did not receive a copy of the appeal until that August.
Duggar claimed that he should be protected by the “prison mailbox rule,” which provides leeway on deadlines as long as motions are “deposited in the institution’s internal mailing system on or before the last day for filing.”
But the judge ultimately found that Duggar’s testimony surrounding how and when he mailed the documents was “not credible” and that he failed to meet the burden of proving he should benefit from the mailbox rule.
“The Court can grant Mr. Duggar one coincidence,” Judge Brooks wrote. “Perhaps even two or three odd happenstances. But Mr. Duggar is asking the Court to believe something akin to a magic bullet theory—a sequential chain of events that defies common sense. Collectively, this chain of events—where Murphy’s law was lurking at every turn—is simply not credible.”
Duggar, who starred on his family’s reality show 19 Kids and Counting, is currently slated for release from prison in February 2033.
