Lori Loughlin is on the current issue of People Magazine. Again. Because “sources close to Lori” can’t shut up about how she is an innocent faith-based scapegoat who was also duped by unscrupulous people. Because, you know, someone duped her into cheating and bribing and frauding her daughters’ way into college. Lori spent $400K on the scheme and now she and Mossimo Giannulli are facing 40-50 years in prison max. This People Mag cover story also focuses on a long-lost issue: is it possible that Lori’s daughters will eventually be charged with their part in the crime?
While Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli’s daughters Olivia Jade, 20, and Isabella Rose, 21, haven’t been charged in connection with the college admissions scandal, one legal expert tells PEOPLE it’s still a possibility. According to former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, “At a minimum the daughters will be witnesses in a trial against their parents, but they could also be charged as defendants.”
“The government has made it clear that they are going to keep increasing pressure on both Lori and Mossimo,” says Rahmani. “By not pleading, Lori and Mossimo are exposing their children to being charged.”
But a Loughlin source disagrees: “If Lori had any indication that the girls were at risk, she’d want to plead guilty — even though she believes that she did nothing wrong. She is not going to let them spend time in jail for something that they didn’t do. Lori is a fantastic mother who would take the fall for the girls even if it cost her everything.”
Contrary to Rahmani’s stance that Loughlin’s daughters are at risk of being charged, legal expert James J. Leonard Jr. says the probability is zero.
“I see absolutely no scenario where the Department of Justice would charge either of the daughters,” says Leonard. “That would be absolute overkill and is contrary to the interest of justice.”
Please sit with me for a moment so that we can all collectively enjoy this quote: “Lori is a fantastic mother who would take the fall for the girls even if it cost her everything.” You guys. SHE WOULD TAKE THE FALL. Lori thinks she’s a gangster, throwing around words and phrases like “duped” and “take the fall.” The thing about “taking the fall” for someone is that it implies that the person for whom you’re taking the fall is actually the guilty one. When Lori says she would take the fall for her daughters, she’s saying she would admit guilt even though everyone knows that Olivia Jade and Isabella did some sh-t. Keep in mind that in Felicity Huffman’s case, the prosecutors and investigators figured out pretty quickly that Felicity was doing all of her SAT shenanigans without her daughters’ knowledge. Olivia Jade and Isabella can’t claim the same thing – they were active participants in the scam to cheat and bribe their way into college.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram, Avalon Red.
These people! LL doesn’t get that it doesn’t work that way.
Could she really be this stupid?????????
Yes. Yes, she can. She’s an undereducated woman who has lived in a bubble of wealth and privilege for a loooong time. She really doesn’t get it because in her mind it’s not supposed to work this way. In her mind she’s entitled to pay her daughters’ way to a good education and she’s entitled to a mild slap on the wrist when caught. The combination of her race, gender, and socioeconomic status normally guarantees it so, yeah, her mind is blown.
Yup!
I do believe that prosecutors are using this as leverage. Thing is, these girls ARE guilty of participating in this fraud. They POSED for pics on the rowing machines fully knowing they NEVER participated in Crew in HS. They knew they didn’t have the grades for USC.
While I don’t think the girls deserve prison, I sure do think some meaningful community service should be levied. Maybe something will burst that privilege-bubble, esp. for Little Miss Bird-Flipper, Olivia Jade.
I think it’s more likely arrogance & narcissism.
@MariaS, I think you are being too kind. Lori wasn’t trying to get her daughters a good education, she just wanted them to have bragging rights that they got in USC. She wanted them to have the college experience, not to truly experience college, certainly not to work and study. This was all about ego; hers, her husband’s, and her girl’s.
I really think she believes TV mirrors real life.
I’m so sick and tired of this chick. She needs to STFU already. LL and her daughters are guilty. I have no doubt in my mind. They should all be punished for their crimes.
How about Lori realizing that she probably doesn’t have that choice anymore. The deals that were sent her way at the beginning are long gone. Her nonsense has put her family in harms way and they just have to deal….idiot.
I can’t wait for them to finally take the said fall. Yesterday another parent, who pleaded guilty and paid half the bribe that aunt Becky paid got a prison sentence-there is simply no way these two clowns get off easy at this point.
What a wonderful mother. (As much eyes roll over my head)
I’m so sick of seeing this woman’s face. I’m sick of seeing her with her fake smile and her frivolous daughters standing there in their cheesy-looking fancy clothes, acting like they’re important people. Go away stupid, fake, immoral, materialistic garbage people.
All I see is way too much rhinoplasty, lol. Way overdone.
+10000000 @K-peace
Eh, I think she means “take the fall” more like “sacrificing herself for her children” bc she thinks that’s what she was doing all along.
I have zero sympathy for LL, zero. But from this article, a source is being quoted, not LL. So I won’t knock her on this – there’s plenty of other things…
People Mag (read: [White] People Mag) knows their audience, which is why they are the only rag taking money to print LL’s ‘poor me’ stories that her team keeps frantically sending out
She hasn’t even taken the fall for herself.
Excellent point!!!!
If she had taken the deal, wouldn’t she have spent just 2 weeks in prison like Felicity Huffman? A lot of people seem to have pled guilty. It’s not like she’d be in the company if people who have been shunned. Is it a conviction on her record she just doesn’t want? Seems like it would be easier up fo the two weeks and then write a book and script about it…
No. Based on what already sentenced parents are getting who did something similar (paid hundreds of thousands to rig their child’s school acceptance), she was likely to get at least 4 months if she pled guilty, especially since it involved two children.
FH paid $15K to alter her daughter’s test score, plus made the payment look like a charitable donation. Everyone is getting supervised release time, fines, and community service requirements. However, another parent who also did what FH did avoided jail time, apparently because he didn’t also make it look like a donation to a charity.
The Fed’s first deal to her was 2 years of time and a fine double that of the bribe. She said no (a little more vehemently than that) and decided to fight these ‘awful, bogus’ charges against them.
Based on the way this judge is ruling, LL almost certainly would have gotten less than that, though she wouldn’t have known at the time the offer was first made what the judge would do. Prosecutors recommended more prison time for people than the judge is handing out. What LL did isn’t any different than other people sentenced already. But – apparently she did it twice, and I wonder how that factors in. I believe the longest sentence so far for a parent was five months, for someone who both rigged the school acceptance and had a test score altered.
At this point though, she has a reasonable idea of what she’d get for a plea; my guess is 4-8 months, depending on how they consider having done it for both daughters. Also don’t know enough to know if the judge would be more harsh because the prosecutors added additional charges, or if she’d get a tougher sentence if she went to trial and was convicted. But I believe she and Mossimo aren’t the only ones not taking a plea deal.
However, if she brings this “I’m a scapegoat I was duped” attitude into court with her, she’s going to be in for a surprise, at least with this particular judge. LL isn’t the only one who’s tried to peddle something or other as a mitigating factor, and the judge hasn’t been buying it.
How stupid are she and husband? This pathetic attempt to gain sympathy is the worst thing they could possibly do. They aren’t being scapegoated. They’re guilty. Their daughters were in on it. They both clearly know they didn’t have the grades to get into USC and they both know they weren’t rowers. Having her face splashed on People Magazine, with sob stories about her being stressed out because of her poor decisions makes her look even more entitled and idiotic. They arrogantly thought they could skate and it’s not working out that way. Boo freaking hoo.
It’s the bubble they live in. In LA, you only see and deal with people and businesses you want to deal with. It’s a car culture. They don’t have to mix with regular people at all, so she is hearing the people around her reinforce her views. The Pacific Palisades/Beverly Hills/Malibu types don’t mix with other people. Maybe ONE family member will for business (Mossimo), but that family member spends private time in the bubble, too. Rich people crap…
I’ve known wealthy people in LA who are like Lori, but also kind people who never “grew into” that awful person. Not like I know lots of rich people, but you run into them and work for them if you live in LA. My mom did a lot of work in the entertainment business, so I grew up watching clueless Loris and Mossimos act like the queens and kings of the world. The little kings and queens truly feel that they are superior to the rest of us because they figured out how to make more money than most people. What they don’t understand is that everyone isn’t willing to do whatever it takes to make that kind of money. If you have self esteem, you don’t need to “make(steal)” massive amounts of money. Mossimo stole his parents money to start his business. When THAT is the base of your life, other moral walls don’t matter. The APPEARANCE of them matters, so we get Lori on People with the girls. Notice that Mossimo doesn’t share the covers with her? They are churchy, but are fuzzy about what morals really are.
I didn’t know that he stole his parents money to start his business. Now they sound even more delightful than before. Those people who have that “the ends justify the means”, no matter how bad the behaviour, are the ones I have zero respect for. The lack of integrity and fake churchy types are the worst. Living in a bubble is dangerous. Bubbles pop all of the time. I’m sure that even though they have people sympathizing with them to their faces, they are probably huge gossip fodder amongst their “friends”.
Gisele, what he did was accept his parents money to pay for his attendance at USC. Instead of passing it to the school, he kept it without their permission to start his fashion company. They found out later. I don’t know if they were angry or proud of him, but they should have been angry. If they wanted to teach him NOT to steal, they should have reported him for grand theft. It came out as part of their story when this all started. It’s a story the family tells proudly. I wouldn’t be proud of that, but I’m a mere muggle/Mexican/“the Help” to people like that. People like that are proud when their kids do nefarious stuff and become millionaires. Explains a lot about our American meritocracy, no? Everybody ain’t Warren Buffet.
If my daughter dared to take her tuition money for some other purpose, I’d report her BECAUSE I love her. I told her that she has the privilege of having parents who can pay for her stuff. If she wants more, she needs to earn it, but I told her that if she dared to steal so much as a damn paperclip that I would allow her to get the full brunt of the law. I would go see her in court and in jail, but I wouldn’t interfere with law enforcement if she steals. She knows it because we discussed it.
The Giannulli girls grew up with this story of their father’s “scrappiness (stealing)” as their family origin story. Lori approved.
They need to go to jail for a few years. Even then, they may not get it.
Lori and Mossimo have friends pulling away, but I’m sure that some of them aren’t so clean themselves, either. They might be talking smack about them, but I’m pretty sure that plenty of them have skeletons rattling around in their financial and social climbing closets, too. Think of all of the rich women in LA who had to marry old farts, or how all of those old farts got their money on the backs of other people. Sometimes it’s earned. Sometimes, the cards are stacked against everybody else so that the Malibu Kens and Barbies and the Trump-types can maintain their wealth.
She wouldn’t though. She would definitely say she would, and she definitely wants that to be her image, diving in front to take the assassin’s bullet, sacrificing herself.
But when it comes down to it, the only person she will actively try to save is herself.
Getting those dim bulbs into a college they weren’t even interested in, wasn’t for those teenagers, it was all about mom and dad, and their reputation and status.
This woman seems so rotten inside.
*snort* would she stand up in court and say “I volunteer as tribute”? That’s not how this works.
Is she testing her testimony with the public? Why the almost weekly leaks from “sources”? She has to be behind all these articles.
If she had put half this effort into accepting a plea arrangement months ago, she could now be doing interviews about how a few days in prison affected her.
When you don’t know any real people, or the real people you know are house cleaning for you and you think you are superior to them, you need market research to understand us Muggles.
She is truly clueless and apparently lacking remorse.
I appreciate your LA bubble description up thread, too. There is just never enough money for some people.
She seems to think that for some reason, she should get off easily because she “only” executed the highly illegal plan that someone else came up with. Like if you don’t come up with the plan on your own, out of your own brain, it’s not illegal?
I know there are patsies and “fall guys” who are tricked into doing something illegal. Like someone who has drugs planted on them to cross the border. But those people A) don’t know that they’re doing something illegal and B) don’t benefit from the illegal activity.
This was a plan that was conceived with the sole purpose of benefitting Lori, her husband, and her daughters. She knew what she was doing was illegal. She participated fully and knowingly every step of the way. It doesn’t matter that someone else technically came up with the plan. It’s like if I wanted to kill someone so I could get the insurance money, and I followed a plan out of a murder-mystery novel. I’m still guilty of murder. The novel doesn’t take the fall for me.
Amy Too, you read books and interact with real people. Lori reads scripts and only hangs with people who don’t question her motives or thinking. Us normals will never get why they do this stuff because we have to navigate the real world. She navigates Malibu.
A “fantastic mother” teaches her children that nothing is handed to you, you are not entitled, you don’t game the system, you are not better than everyone else. She teaches you that you have to work hard to achieve what you want in life. LL does not come even close to the definition of a “fantastic mother”.
I don’t think the daughters deserved to be included. The younger one already announced she didn’t like to go to college but the parents insisted.
Off topic but Lori to me looks like a Baywatch cast member holdout who didn’t know the series ended in the 90s but still continues to show up on set in her red swimming gear. She really looks like she belongs to a long forgotten era no matter how present her style is.
I can just see her marching up to the prosecutor like she did the first time, but now her eyes large and pleading, brimming with tears, saying “I’m just giving you fair notice that I’ll take the fall for my girls, nn-kay? So you’ll handle that right?” In her mind she softens the prosecutor, becoming to him/her the freshfaced heroic mom with gumption to spare that she knows she is! With a remorseful smile –the prosecutor realizing how wrong he/ she has been about her — reaches out and gently brushes a stray strand of hair from her forehead. Little does Lori realize that she has begun working on a script, a script that she will have lots of time to work on in the very near future. Ironically perfect for Hallmark actually.
I actually feel a bit sorry for her daughters, spoiled they may be. This statement by Lori is kind of gross. She and her husband committed tax fraud, all by themselves, so what does “taking the fall for them” mean aside from her actually trying to push some of her crimes onto her daughters? It a real mindxxxx.
Can we please charge this narcissistic knitwit so that the world doesn’t have to hear her and her entitled mini-me’s bulls*t anymore