Lori Loughlin And Mossimo Giannulli Claim Rick Singer Was Instructed By The FBI To Lie To Incriminate Them
Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli are trying it. I mean everyone is going down for this. Scavo Pizzeria heiress Lynette Scavo and Hot Pockets heiress Michelle Janavs both got jail time. And Lori and Mossimo won’t go down like that. So it’s Hail Mary time!
Lori and Mossimo are accused of using $500,000 to fake rowing credentials for their daughters Isabella Giannulli and Olivia Jade. They’ve been charged with federal programs bribery and money laundering but have always claimed they were tricked! They were turned in by the College Admissions Scandal ring-leader himself, Rick Singer, who started working with authorities after getting caught. Well, Lori and Mossimo’s lawyer are using that to their advantage. Their lawyer claims that new evidence proves that the FBI instructed Rick to lie by saying the money was a “bribe” instead of calling it “donations” like he originally did.
People says that court documents filed by Lori’s attorney, Sean M. Berkowitz, claims there are some “exonerating” notes of Rick’s where he details conversations with the FBI about “recorded phone calls that they directed him to make to his clients in order to induce inculpatory statements to be used against those clients.” The documents state:
“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.”
These notes came from the information release that included Olivia’s fake resume, and Sean says the notes clear his clients because the government called the “donations” a “bribe.” In his mind this also proves the government purposely withheld evidence to charge rich people with crimes. Rick’s notes state (via TMZ):
After Singer described the “loud and abrasive” call he added, “Essentially they (FBI agents) are asking me to bend the truth which is what they asked me not to do when working with the agents and Eric Rosen (Asst. U.S. Attorney).”
Singer also noted that someone named Liz, presumably a federal agent, “raised her voice to me like she did in the hotel room about agreeing with her that everyone bribed the schools. This time about asking each person to agree to a lie I was telling them.”
…As Berkowitz says in the docs, Singer’s notes are “devastating to the Government’s case and demonstrate that the Government has been improperly withholding core exculpatory information, employing a ‘win at all costs’ effort rather than following their obligation to do justice.”
“Devastating” is maybe a reach. Remember how other people pleaded guilty already? And if this was a legitimate payment to the school, why did Mossimo freak out on the counselor who asked about Olivia Jade’s rowing credentials? Lori and Mossimo’s lawyer claim all the payments were “donations” pointing to a note of Rick’s which says:
“They continue to ask me to tell a fib and not restate what I told my clients as to where their money was going–to the program not the coach and that it was a donation and they want it to be a payment…. Essentially, they are asking me to bend the truth… Liz raised her voice to me like she did in the hotel room about agreeing with her that everyone bribed the schools. This time about asking each person to agree to a lie I was telling them.”
Cool, so the point of this new defense is that they never used the word “bribe” thus they can’t be guilty of money laundering or bribery. You know when prostitutes meet with johns they call it a “donation“, right? And the only charity that money went to was The Help Aunt Becky And Target’s Mossimo Live Vicariously Through Their Children’s Educational Accomplishments Foundation.
Pic: Wenn.com