Lori Loughlin took a bad legal gamble in the college admissions scandal, said Fox News legal analyst Mercedes Colwin on “America’s Newroom” Thursday.
What happened: Colwin said Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, took a gamble when they didn’t accept a plea deal at the beginning of the college scandal, according to Fox News.
Context: Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of paying $500,000 in bribes so that their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli, could be crew team recruits for the University of Southern California. The couple pleaded not guilty.
- Actress Felicity Huffman, who was also named in the scandal, took a plea deal and ended up serving less than two weeks.
The gamble: Colwin told Fox News that Loughlin’s decision was a bad legal gamble.
- Colwin: “So I think it was a gamble, and a gamble that, frankly, given all of the other parents who’ve pled, who really have light sentences … it was a gamble they lost.”
- Colwin: “Prosecutors are looking at these two, at Lori Loughlin and her husband, saying, ‘You haven’t pled. You have seen dozens of other parents plead guilty.’”
- Colwin: “Remember when there was a whole flood of these plea deals, they were only initially charged with conspiracy to commit fraud. They didn’t plead, suddenly the next day, the two days thereafter, the prosecutor said, ‘You didn’t plead guilty like all these other parents. I’m going to now charge you with fraud.’”
- Colwin: “They are now facing money laundering charges too, which is very significant. So this is their last point. If you don’t plead like all the others, we’re now going to use your daughters and implicate your daughters.”
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What’s next: Loughlin’s defense team will appear in court on Feb. 27 and May. 2.