I‘m not a lawyer, and I don’t pretend to be. All you need are ears or eyes, plus an IQ in the triple digits to understand that Lori Loughlin is going to jail, perhaps for a long time.
TMZ reports that Aunt Becky plans on pleading ignorance:
It’s true … knowledge and intent are key elements to proving bribery, and we’re told Lori and Mossimo’s lawyers are making that a centerpiece of their defense … their only intent is to generally get their daughters into USC by using a ‘facilitator’ who got hundreds of other students into colleges.
Ah, yes, that’ll hold up in court!
Loughlin and fellow felonious celeb Felicity Huffman have taken two separate approaches in the Operation Varsity Blues fallout. Huffman, who spent $15,000 on the college admissions scam rather than Loughlin’s hundreds of thousands of dollars, immediately agreed to a guilty plea, putting out a public apology about as humble one could ask for. As a result, she likely faces just a few months of jail time.
In contrast, Loughlin reportedly believed prosecutors were bluffing and refused to enter a plea, strutting around the courthouse signing autographs instead of keeping her head down. Now, realizing that she’s screwed, Loughling plans on pleading ignorance.
This is all but destined to fail for a few reasons.
It’s theoretically possible that Singer cajoled some parents into believing that they were merely writing a check to him as a middleman to donate directly to the school rather than bribe specific corrupt staffers. After all, donations of buildings and wings to universities in exchange for a child’s admission is commonplace. But all the evidence involved demonstrates that Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, not only knew they were bribing specific individuals, but also that they were lying to a university.
For one thing, Giannulli directly gave USC Associate Athletic Director Donna Heinel two checks totaling $100,000. In addition, they knew all about Singer’s plan to falsely present their daughters as crew recruits, going as far as having younger daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli pose for a photo on an indoor rower.
As far as intent goes, a jury might find it hard to avoid the conclusion that Giannulli and Loughlin both knew they were defrauding USC. They face charges for mail fraud, honest services fraud, and now money laundering. Again, I’m not an attorney, so I’m not going to attempt to unpack the money laundering charge, but the mail and honest services fraud charges seem pretty straightforward.
Mail fraud requires the use of mail, a scheme and intent to defraud, and the involvement of material deception. Well, every part of the crew facade and checks were sent via mail and email. Loughlin and Giannulli apparently knew that higher-ups at USC did not know that their daughters were false crew recruits. And “my daughters who have never rowed crew before in their lives will masquerade as crew recruits” appears to pass the threshold of material deception.
The precedent for private citizens being found guilty of honest services fraud for defrauding universities goes back at least two decades, with United States v. Frost clearly establishing that even employees at public universities can act in a private capacity if assisting with plagiarism. Although the statute has come under fire from originalists for being so vague that it may be unconstitutional, this case clearly passes the materiality test and follows the precedent of white collar criminals found guilty under the charge.
Euripides couldn’t have written a tragedy of hubris with such schadenfreude. Unless federal prosecutors decide to pull a Kim Foxx and bend the knee to celebrity, Aunt Becky’s going to jail.
