There's a lot happening in the world right now—ahem, a global pandemic—so it wouldn't be surprising if you completely forgot that Lori Loughlin is still embroiled in the legal fallout from her alleged involvement in the college admissions scandal. Last March, Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Gianulli, were accused of paying $300k worth of bribes to ensure their daughters' acceptance to the University of Southern California (USC).
A number of the other parents involved in the case, including Felicity Huffman, plead guilty to the charges brought against them and received light sentences. Loughlin and Gianulli, however, decided to fight the charges. If they're found guilty, they could face up to 40 years in prison. As they prepare for their upcoming court battle, Loughlin and her husband are now calling for the judge presiding over their case to drop the charges against them all together.
Earlier this month, Loughlin's attorney Sean Berkowitz filed a motion to have to the upcoming trial date postponed due to previously unknown evidence. The mastermind of the college admissions scandal, Rick Singer, was reportedly asked by the FBI to lie about whether the parents involved in the scam knew they were paying bribes. According to the Associated Press, Loughlin and Mossimo have now banded together with other defendants to accuse the prosecution of “extraordinary” misconduct and demand the judge throw out their cases.
“The extraordinary government misconduct presented in this case threatens grave harm to defendants and the integrity of this proceeding. That misconduct cannot be ignored,” the lawyers wrote in their plea. The attorneys' statement also claims once again that the investigators on the case bullied their informant into lying and then concealed evidence that could potentially exonerate parents like Loughlin who have claimed innocence since the beginning.
The defense also discovered that the prosecutors withheld Singer's notebook, which claims many of the parents were told they were making legitimate donations to various colleges. Singer's notes read: “They continue to ask me to tell a fib and not restate what I told my clients as to where there money was going — to the program not the coach and that it was a donation and they want it to be a payment."
The lawyers addressed the notes in their plea to the judge, writing: "“For government agents to coerce an informant into lying on recorded calls to generate false inculpatory evidence against investigative targets—and to then knowingly prosecute those targets using that false evidence—is governmental malfeasance of the worst kind."
Should the judge decide to continue with the legal proceedings, the attorneys argue the judge should at least prevent prosecutors from using the “tainted recordings” at trial and order a hearing to “uncover the full truth about the recordings and the government’s efforts to fabricate and conceal evidence.”
Photo: Getty