Following claims that the FBI pressured “Operation Varsity Blues” ringleader William “Rick” Singer into lying about Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli'a knowledge of the college admissions bribery going on within his organization, the couple requested that her current case be thrown out.
In February, Singer’s lawyers shared documents that alleged that the feds instructed their client to lie about how much Loughlin and Giannulli knew about the extensive scam that he was running as the head of for-profit college counseling service Edge College & Career Network.
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“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,” the filing claimed.
Now that the allegations against the agents assigned to the case have come to light, Loughlin and Giannulli’s defense team is asking the court to toss out the case entirely, citing “extraordinary government misconduct.”
“The extraordinary government misconduct presented in this case threatens grave harm to defendants and the integrity of this proceeding,” said the couple’s legal defense in a statement made in court on Wednesday. “That misconduct cannot be ignored.”
Loughlin and Giannulli could face serious consequences if the case were to proceed to trial in October and not go in their favor. Should the judge deny the motion, the spouses could each be facing a million of dollars worth of fines and up to 50 years behind bars for charges of conspiracy (specifically conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, and conspiracy to commit money laundering).
They still maintain their innocence, claiming that they were led to believe that their $500,000 payment to Singer was a charitable donation.