Josh Duggar’s latest attempt to appeal his child sex crime conviction has been denied and the disgraced former “19 Kids and Counting” star has been moved to another Texas prison, one that is described as an “administrative security federal medical center with a detention center.” 

It is unknown if Josh will remain at this prison permanently or if he is just being held there before he is transferred elsewhere.

As The Ashley previously reported, Josh– who is serving a more than 12-year prison sentence after being found guilty in 2021 of receiving Child Sex Abuse Materials (CSAM)– made a virtual appearance in a federal courthouse in April as part of his fourth (and final) attempt to appeal his conviction.

Despite Josh and his lawyer, Beau Brindley, providing the court with eight arguments as to why Josh should be granted a new trial or have his guilty conviction overturned, the majority of the two-hour hearing focused instead on the suspicion that Josh failed to file and mail his appeal on time. 

While Josh and his lawyer insisted that Josh mailed two copies of his appeal from prison (FCI Seagoville in Texas) on the deadline– June 24, 2025— prosecutors aimed to prove that this was a lie. In August, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas filed a motion suggesting that Josh actually mailed his appeal later than he claimed and that he had missed the deadline to file. Additionally, an FCI Seagoville mail log obtained by People reportedly listed only two letters being mailed from the prison on June 24, though neither piece of mail was from Josh. 

The Court stated that it received one copy of Josh’s appeal on July 29, 2025— well after the deadline. (That copy was addressed to the U.S. Attorney but somehow was sent to the Court.) The second copy— which was sent to the Court— was reportedly received on August 18, 2025.

The judge overseeing the proceedings informed the court in April that he would wait to see if Josh’s appeal was, in fact, filed and mailed by the June 24 deadline before moving forward. The judge did not buy the 38-year-old’s argument to the alleged mailing mistakes, as it was ultimately ruled this week that Josh filed his motion too late and that his claims regarding the filing were “not credible.” 

“Collectively, this chain of events– where Murphy’s Law was lurking at every corner– is simply not credible,” the judge wrote.

In court documents obtained by The Ashley, the judge also claimed that Josh’s story “strains common sense for several reasons,” while adding that there were inconsistencies in his “tale about how he mailed his motion” and the fact that his statements were “not consistent on the stand.” 

Josh testified that his wife, Anna, helped him type up and prepare his motion well before the deadline but she mailed them back to Josh instead of mailing them in on his behalf. Josh claims he then signed them, addressed them and mailed them using stamps he got from another inmate (an act that is actually against the prison’s rules). His testimony also revealed that he had further violated prison rules by somehow convincing a prison staff member to make additional copies of his motion for free.

Josh apparently could not explain why— if he mailed his motion on the June 24 deadline— it somehow took 35 days to be delivered to the Court Clerk’s Office (even though it was addressed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office). 

He also could not explain why the other copy of the motion he sent took 45 days to be delivered, or why the postage amount was not correct, or why the printing of the paperwork appeared to have been done by a third-party service and not the prison staff member as he suggested.

Josh’s ever-changing explanations for why all of these unfortunate events just happened to occur during his attempt at mailing his motions did not fly with the court. The judge ruled that one or two of these things could have happened to Josh, but not all of them.

“The Court can grant Mr. Duggar one coincidence,” the paperwork states. “Perhaps even two or three odd happenstances. Mr. Duggar is asking the Court to believe something akin to a magic bullet theory– a sequential chain of events that defies common sense,” Judge Timothy Brooks— who was the same judge who presided over Josh’s trial—wrote in court documents obtained by The Ashley.

The court docs note that, surprisingly, Josh did not call Anna or the prison staff member(s) who assisted him in making the copies of his motion to testify on the stand on his behalf. 

Not only has Josh’s latest appeal attempt been quashed, the father of seven has reportedly been relocated to another prison in Texas. While the former TLC star had been serving his sentence at FCI Seagoville, a “low-security facility,” People reports that he’s now listed as an inmate at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Located 46 miles from FCI Seagoville, Fort Worth FMC is described as an “administrative security federal medical center with a detention center.”

Despite Josh’s new abode being a federal medical facility, his transfer to the facility doesn’t confirm that he was in need of any medical care. 

While the details of Josh’s transfer are unknown at this time, TMZ reports that Josh is not the only former reality star who’s currently locked up at the facility, as Fort Worth FMC also happens to be the prison where Joseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado-Passage of Netflix’s “Tiger King” is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence.

As it stands, Josh is due to be released from prison on February 2, 2033.  He will be 45 years old.

RELATED STORY: Joy Forsyth Tells Sister Jinger Vuolo She’s “Really Been Struggling” Following Brother Joe Duggar’s Arrest for Child Molestation: “We’re All Grieving” 

(Photos: TLC; Instagram)