NEWSJim Bob Duggar & Derick Dillard Share 'Cold' Greeting At Josh Duggar's Child Pornography Trial
Dec. 8 2021, Published 12:36 p.m. ET
Tensions between the Duggars appeared to be at an all-time high, as Josh Duggar’s child pornography trial continues.
Josh’s father, Jim Bob Duggar, was in attendance in the courtroom for the ongoing trial earlier this week, where he seemingly had a chilly encounter with his estranged daughter Jill Dillard’s husband, Derick Dillard.
He reportedly walked past his son-in-law, offering a meager “hello,” to which Derick responded: “hi,” before moving to the back to sit with more of Josh’s siblings.
The outlet claimed the atmosphere between the family was “awkward and cold,” as Derick and Jill have some complicated history with the former reality star’s father.
In 2015, Jill and her sister Jessa were named as two of the five minor girls who had been allegedly molested by their older brother years prior.
Jill previously hinted at trouble in her relationship with her family members when she mentioned in a YouTube video earlier this year that she hadn’t visited their family home in years.
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“There’s a lot of triggers there,” her husband said in the video, which was posted shortly after the pair decided to take a step back from their spinoff show, Counting On.
Derick also appeared to have his own qualms with his father-in-law. Back in May, it came to light that he had liked a tweet that made some harrowing claims against Jim Bob.
“Jim Bob keeps the children compliant thru financial/emotional abuse,” the tweet Derick liked read, per The Sun.
The famous family’s spinoff series was ultimately canceled after Josh was arrested in April on child pornography charges. The arrest came after Homeland Security raided his car dealership back in 2019, with authorities discovering disturbing child pornographic content on a computer at his workplace.
The 33-year-old is now facing two charges of receiving and possessing child pornography, for which he could spend up to 20 years in prison per each count.
As OK! previously reported, the defense tried arguing before the trial that Josh’s previous molestation scandal from when he was younger should not be used in the current case, although the judge ultimately ruled the disgraced reality star’s dark past would be allowed as evidence.
Josh has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and his legal team continues to suggest the content found on the computer could have been downloaded by someone else working at the car lot.
