14 DAY TRIAL // The Kelly File special promised to include additional footage from Megyn Kelly’s Duggar interview aired last night. You can see her chat with Jessa and Jill Duggar, who have identified themselves as victims of molestation from Josh, embedded below.
The Duggars are now at the center of a huge media scandal after police records were released online about events that occurred in 2002 and 2003, when Josh was 14 and 15. By 2003, when he was sent away from home to a Christian-based camp, he had molested 5 minor girls, 4 of whom were his sisters and the youngest of whom was 5.
Jessa and Jill have forgiven Josh
Josh was never charged for what he did because, by the time authorities got involved to launch a formal investigation in 2006, the statute of limitations had passed and no party involved wanted to cooperate with the police.
Because the Duggars are TLC’s biggest stars right now, thanks to their 19 Kids and Counting reality show, and because they have had so far an impeccable image as devout Christians, these revelations blew up in the press in a major way.
So it was high time the Duggars said something in their defense as well. The first to speak were Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the parents, who were instrumental in keeping details of the incidents from getting out in the media or to the authorities, as they’d known of them from day one.
They sat down for a chat with Kelly that aired earlier this week. Daughters Jessa and Jill, the most famous of their children, spoke to Kelly as well, but contrary to the initial promise, they hardly brought anything new to the discussion.
They reiterate what their parents said about Josh’s victims not even being aware of what he was doing to them, they defend Josh as a teenager going through puberty who “got a little too curious and ran into trouble,” and they explain that they have forgiven him.
This wasn’t something that was asked of or imposed to them, they stress: they really felt like they could forgive their brother for touching them inappropriately when they were 10 to 12 years old.
The media is to blame
Just like their parents, the sisters also rush to point the finger at the media for the ongoing molestation scandal. First of all, Jessa says, Josh is no pedophile and he’s no rapist or child molester: he was just a kid who was curious.
Secondly, he didn’t do anything as bad as it was made to sound in the press. He merely touched his sisters in their sleep, or when they were awake. In the latter case, he was “sly” enough so that they wouldn’t know what had happened, she says smiling.
Thirdly, the media is revictimizing them all over again. The sisters claim that the documents published online were obtained illegally (which they weren’t, because the case wasn’t seal at the time they were released under the Freedom of Information Act), thus forcing them to come out and identify themselves.
They even say that what the media has done to them is several times worse than what Josh did to them.
You can see their defense of their brother below.
