The prosecutors in the college admissions case against the 'Full House' actress and the other parents deny any wrongdoing as the lawyers representing the defendants accused them of misconduct.
- April 10, 2020
AceShowbiz - The prosecution in Lori Loughlin's U.S. college admissions case denied claims they had acted unfairly by "entrapping" the defendants.
Loughlin's lawyers, and those representing the other parents accused of trying to land their children top university spots by allegedly bribing education administrators, had claimed prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office were guilty of misconduct, and asked a judge to throw out the charges against them.
They cited the notes from Rick Singer - the ringleader in the case - which they claimed proved he had been forced to call the "donations" Loughlin, her husband Mossimo Giannulli, and the others gave him for colleges they were hoping to get their kids into "bribes." Loughlin's defence team also argued that the prosecution had withheld the notes for nearly nine months - well past a court-imposed discovery deadline.
In a 36-page filing responding to the claims on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts' office admitted they should have turned over the notes sooner, but insisted they hadn't acted in bad faith.
"In a sprawling, fast-moving prosecution, the failure to produce the notes earlier was simply a mistake," Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven E. Frank wrote. "The defendants have suffered no prejudice, and their suggestion that the notes somehow 'exonerate' them, or reveal that the evidence against them was fabricated, is demonstrably false."
The filing also stated that regardless of whether or not Singer and the defendants referred to the donations as "bribes" or not, the evidence points to all of those involved knowing that what they were involved in was corrupt.
"Just because neither Singer nor the defendants actually used the word 'bribe' to describe the purported donations doesn't mean that they were legitimate," Frank wrote. "They were bribes, regardless of what Singer and the defendants called them, because, as the defendants knew, the corrupt insiders were soliciting the money in exchange for recruiting unqualified students, in violation of their duty of honest services to their employer."
Loughlin and Giannulli, who have yet to respond to Wednesday's filing, are scheduled to go to trial on October 5.
