To recap, the FBI has a mountain of evidence against Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli. Lori and Mossimo are just two parents in the larger Operation Varsity Blues investigation of bribery, false documentation, mail fraud, fraud and more, all of which involved parents doing anything and everything to get their kids into a good college. In Lori and Mossimo’s case, they spent $500,000 to bribe various officials, and they also “helped” their daughters pretend they were part of the crew team. Lori and Mossimo are counting on the complicated nature of their particular case to confuse jurors and average people so they claim some technicality is different than what the feds claim, therefore NOT GUILTY! Keep that in mind with this story:
An attorney for Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli has filed a motion to have the decision on his clients’ trial date postponed after claiming to have explosive evidence that allegedly reveals college admissions scam ring leader Rick Singer was told to lie by the FBI about Loughlin and Giannulli’s knowledge of bribes being paid. In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Loughlin and Giannulli’s attorney Sean M. Berkowitz explains that prosecutors have released previously withheld “exonerating” information about the couple, who have been charged with bribery.
The alleged information includes written notes by Singer — the man at the center of the scandal and the founder and CEO of the company The Key: a Private Life Coaching and Counseling Company — that detail concerning conversations he had with the FBI about “recorded phone calls that they directed him to make to his clients in order to induce inculpatory statements to be used against those clients. Singer’s notes indicate that FBI agents yelled at him and instructed him to lie by saying that he told his clients who participated in the alleged ‘side door’ scheme that their payments were bribes, rather than legitimate donations that went to the schools,” Berkowitz states in the court documents.
“They further note the Government’s desire to ‘nail’ one of the defendants ‘at all costs,’” according to Loughlin and Giannulli’s attorney.
In what the attorney’s claim is Singer’s “own” notes, he described “loud and abrasive calls” with FBI agents.
“They continue to ask me to tell a fib and not restate what I told my clients as to where their money was going — to the program not the coach and that it was a donation and they want it to be a payment,” Singer allegedly wrote in his notes, the court documents reveal. “Essentially, they are asking me to bend the truth… Liz raised her voice to me like she did in the hotel room about agreeing with her that everyone bribed the schools. This time about asking each person to agree to a lie I was telling them,” Singer allegedly wrote about what appears to be one federal agent.
Now with this new information, Berkowitz is hoping to figure out whether or not Singer actually told Loughlin, 55, and Giannulli, 56, their donations were bribes or if their donations were going to the school.
You can read the rest of it at People – it’s a lengthy piece and it reads like it was entirely written by Lori and Mossimo’s lawyer. The crux of their argument is that Lori and Mossimo were just bumbling along and Rick Singer came around and told them out of nowhere that if they gave him $500K, he would simply be the middleman for a legitimate donation to USC. Lori and Mossimo’s lawyer is claiming entrapment, basically, and that Singer never explicitly told them that they were doing anything illegal. Again, ignorance of the law is not a defense, and even if Singer did lie to them – which, honestly, he probably did – that doesn’t explain how they Photoshopped crew images or all of the other stuff.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.
Oh please honey stop. You knew what you were doing, end of story. The funny thing is while her parents are fighting tooth and nail to stay out of prison, their precious daughter is still making YouTube videos as if everything is fine.
Hard to prove you’ve been duped when you also went out of your way to lie about the achievements of your kids and even posed them for photos to further the lie. That kind of argument might stand if they had ONLY sent money in, but with the whole pretending to be a star athlete thing even if he DID lie, it’s pretty clear they were willing and active participants in scamming the system.
Right? This last ditch effort is going to fall flat because there’s so much other evidence.
They should have just been smart for once and plead guilty.
I read yesterday about a mother who was sentenced in this scam. She is the Hot Pockets Pizza heiress and she paid $200K to have test results altered. She got 5 months in prison.
She also went the staged sports pic route with her other kid. She did both Felicity and Aunt Becky’s methods.
Has anyone actually seen these staged photos? I keep hearing about it but can’t find a link to the actual photos.
If you live in Boston, you can most likely check out the case file to view the exhibits – that’s if they aren’t sealed.
They are Trumping. They know what they did, but they are used to just repeating what they want over and over and paying lawyers to say it until they get what they want. See Harvey Weinstein, Prince Andrew, et al. No, they didn’t commit sex crimes, but what they did took opportunities from deserving people and gaslighted the people around them. The wealthy get away with a lot. The judge on the College Admissions scandal seems to be well aware of how the wealthy White folks get away with their ugly, and she is giving these idiots real jail time.
How sad that that is all they have. Screw them.
Exactly what I was going to say. They’re pulling a Trump, claiming the deep state is against them.
When sentencing started last October for those pleading guilty, some parents, who’d already paid to get kids into college, were now paying for consultant reports to try and mitigate jail time. One submitted a report from a well known criminologist, claiming his difficult childhood made him susceptible to being manipulated. (Didn’t interfere with his success in business apparently.). The judge’s response: “I maybe should say to you, before I get nine more of these: I don’t feel I need an expert report from a criminologist to tell me how to rule here, particularly where it’s the same criminologist that’s going to be probably presenting for everybody in L.A.”
So yeah, the judge gets it. The guy, who’d paid $400K to get his son into Georgetown as a bogus tennis recruit, was sentenced to four months in jail.
Should’ve pled when you had the chance, Lori. You might have been halfway done with your time by now.
Thank God the judge is not buying it, but their sentences still piss me off compared to the woman of color who got YEARS for enrolling her child in a better school district.
Oh, Aunt Becky. You can’t Becky your way out of this. You’re going to jail.
If they really thought it was all legitimate and above board, why did they freak out when that counsellor raised suspicions about Olivia not rowing crew? Wouldn’t they simply have straight up told her ‘No, Mr Singer has told us this is all fine and normal’ instead of raising hell to make her back down without questioning further?
Nice try Becky.
This about reputation. The idea from the Right that everything is a conspiracy by the FBI to undermine successful white Americans. It supports Drumpt’s argument that he is innocent and a victim of the FBI’s witch-hunt. Don’t believe your lying eyes, the families were duped into staging photos and bribes. If the FBI’s reputation wasn’t damaged by the current administration than the lawyer would not have introduced this subplot.
The privilege in these two is so disgusting. “It’s not faaaaair that we’re under the rule of law! We’re rich! Poor us!” Ugh, go to jail already.
C’mon, laws and jail time are for the poors! I mean, seriously!
Such slimy, slimy people. If Hot Pockets lady got five months after pleading guilty, these two better get twice as much for wasting public money on dealing with their BS.
I haven’t really been following this. Were they offered the same plea deal as Felicity Huffman? If so, and they took their chances on this ridiculous defense, they are probably the dumbest most entitled people ever. They’re probably spending millions to defend themselves, and face years in prison. Idiots.
They were offered a plea deal and they didn’t take it. They just keep digging themselves deeper and deeper with these press releases. One of the recent stories is that they’re selling their mansion to pay for legal fees. Boo hoo, poor rich a$$holes.
The government wanted to nail one of the people at all costs? Oh, Lori, you privileged, arrogant, whiny idiot! EVERYONE involved with this has been convicted. Go whine to convicted Hot Pockets Heiress and see how she responds. Take the plea deal and stop wasting my tax money.
Calling the prosecutors unethical and accusing them of cover ups may work in the short term for orange tyrants but not for B+ Hallmark actors hon. It is just making them more annoyed …
Lord I hope these two go to prison.
She is going to prison, for at a minimum a few months. Another mother paid half of what Lori paid and was sentenced to 5 months in federal prison. Bye Lori! Her entitlement and persistence in continuing the lie makes me feel no sympathy for her!
Hot Pockets Heiress got 5 months for a *guilty* plea, so Aunt Becky and Mossy better knock this audacious entitlement off. I am very much looking forward to live coverage of the judge lighting them up with cold fury at sentencing.
The coverage will be from reporters outside the courthouse. Cameras aren’t allowed inside the Moakley Courthouse. Sketch artists are brought in for big trials like Whitey Bulger and the the Marathon Bomber. Maybe we’ll get a sketch of Lori screaming as the verdict and sentence aren’t read.
Thank you. I am not American, and from the outside looking in a lot of court proceedings (especially of this nature) appear to be televised.
Who took pictures of the girls pretending to be on a rowing team?
Right. Just fess up Becky.
I want her to get more time than anyone just because of her trying to slime her way out of it.
When this défense tanks I’m waiting for alone that says ITS NOT US it’s Alexa or SIRIs fault. We were just talking in jest when that bitch took our plan we made in fun and made it all happen. SHE even took the pictures of the girls in rowing gear. SHE sent the bribes..we’re innocent blame the Google blame Apple
Not only did they pose for rowing pics, Olivia jade also had it on her resume. But sure Becky, you were tricked.
Pure white trash at its finest!!!!! Such a self entitled twit
OMG just stop with the lies! Even the Hot Pockets heiress (not kidding!) plead guilty and only got 4 months of jail. She used both Felicity and Aunt Becky’s methods to get her kids into USC. THere is no way they will be exonerated.