Lori Loughlin and husband Mossimo Giannulli are continuing their fight in the nationwide college admissions scandal — filing new court papers insisting that the government hid critical evidence in their case.
The evidence proves they didn’t know the cash they paid to get their daughters into the University of Southern Florida was a bribe, according to new filings the couple made in Boston federal court Friday.
The celebrity couple has claimed they believed the money they sent to the scam’s mastermind, college adviser William “Rick” Singer, actually “would go to USC itself—for legitimate, university-approved purposes—or to other legitimate charitable causes,” the papers say.
The pair said that even though federal prosecutors claimed on Jan. 14 that they weren’t withholding “exculpatory” evidence, they nonetheless revealed on Tuesday that Singer had told the FBI that “families that do the side door … typically do not know that (crooked former USC official Donna) Heinel is involved until the time of the first payment.”
The feds should have disclosed this back in May, they argue.
The “Full House” star and Giannulli, a fashion designer, have been accused of paying $500,000 to Singer to falsely submit their daughters, Olivia Jade, now 19, and Isabella, 20, as rowing recruits to the University of Southern California — even though neither had ever competed in the sport.
They face up to 40 years in prison and have pleaded not guilty.
Singer allegedly collected money from dozens of well-heeled moms and dads for a sham charity and then funneled the cash as bribes to crooked athletic officials or exam administrators to ease their kids’ way into top schools including Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA and Yale, according to prosecutors.
The government “improperly” withheld Singer’s statements as a means to “pressure defendants into pleading guilty,” Loughlin and Giannulli claim.
“There is no evidence Defendants somehow knew these payments to USC were personal bribes designed to compensate Heinel for betraying her employer,” the filing stated.
Prosecutors are seeking an October trial date Loughlin and Giannulli and a handful of other parents charged in the scheme.
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