Felicity Huffman took the plea deal and only received 14 days in prison. Lori Loughlin rejected the plea deal and more charges were added to her federal indictment. It doesn’t appear that federal prosecutors are interested in offering Lori and her husband Mossimo any other deals, or maybe they did offer a deal and Lori rejected those too because they came with prison time. All I know for sure is that Lori Loughlin has screwed herself over with all of the “faith-based” leaks to People Magazine and the pity-poor-me bulls–t. Just after Felicity’s sentencing, “sources close to Lori” were feeling especially chatty with People Mag yet again.
As news spread that Felicity Huffman had been sentenced to 14 days behind bars for her role in the college admissions scandal, one of the other defendants was paying close attention to the proceedings. Lori Loughlin, who has also been implicated in the scandal, was watching very closely on Friday to see whether Huffman got any time in jail, according to a source close to the Full House star.
“Lori is aware of Felicity’s sentence, and is processing what that means for her,” the source tells PEOPLE. “Her only move now is to take this to court and to prove that she is not guilty of what she’s charged with.”
“If [Lori] is found guilty, she will go to jail; that is clear,” the source says. “And if another deal is offered to her, which I don’t think it will be, she will go to jail. Her only chance of avoiding jail is to beat these charges. Lori is a smart woman; she understands that. She’s scared and upset, but she’s resolved to be strong and to fight this. She will do what she has to do to protect herself and her family.”
According to the source close to Loughlin, she “regrets” not taking a deal. “She didn’t understand the entire nature of the charges against her, and she wasn’t even sure if or how she had broken the law,” the source says. “It was very early, and she didn’t have all the information that she has now. Based on what she understood at the time, she made the best choice for herself. Now there is no deal on the table, and she has to have faith that the courts and the prosecution will move fairly and not make an example out of her.”
“This has been a rough day,” the source says. “Lori is going to move forward as best as she can, but now she has a little more clarity about what will happen next.”
Ignorance of the law is NOT A DEFENSE. Years of watching Law & Order taught me that. Just because you don’t understand the depth of the crimes you’ve committed or why you’re being charged a certain way, that does not mean anything. “I didn’t know” is not a legal defense or a legal strategy. It’s especially rich for Lori because… she has a lawyer. She’s probably paying tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, it’s not like she’s got a public defender (no disrespect to public defenders, you guys are doing the lord’s work). If she was confused by the charges or if she didn’t understand why she was charged the way she was, she needed to get her lawyer to explain the sh-t to her.
But maybe this is all part of the act: Lori is super-innocent, she innocently tried to bribe someone with $500K to fake her daughters’ sports activities, it was all just an innocent mistake and it’s all so innocent, she can’t even conceive of how anyone would find the activity to be CRIMINAL, and even when she was facing down federal felony charges, she was too innocent to even understand the charges. That’s her defense. That and the church sh-t.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.
If I was a millionaire or billionaire, I’d be doing some major PR work right now. It’s clear that people are getting VERY fed up with wealth inequality and the privilege that goes with it. Lock this couple up and make them serve the full sentence – it’s clear Lori thought she could buy her kids way into school and she thinks she can buy her way out of punishment for not following the law.
I so agree that this is about wealth inequity and what it can buy a person. Because if I had done this I can guarantee I wouldn’t have been treated like Felicity. The wealthy can get away with so much more than we can ever imagine. And it sucks that there is such inequity but at the same token, I’m sure there are people who would look at me and roll their eyes thinking: girl, you got it good too.
Right?!
I have a home (rented, but still) in a pretty nice place. I can order sht off Amazon if I feel like it. (Not especially big sht, but still.) If I get sick, I can go to the Dr. (Thanks, Obama!)
This makes me unbelievably privileged compared to MOST folks!!!
I don’t have access to Lori’s hairdresser (much less her legal team, or even her neighborhood – unless I want to go to work as a maid). But I’m still doing pretty well.
I think more of us need to appreciate more of what we do have. The striving is a sickness.
@ Some chick. Exactly. I have a job, health care and live a pretty good life. I’m not Beyoncé and I’m not Felicity but so many get caught up wanting what the ones who have more have that we seldom think of those who don’t have what we have.
Some chick, I had to respond to you. My son works for Save The Children, and travels all over the world to places where people don’t have clean water, access to doctors, enough food, or safety. He’s seen babies dying from starvation or a preventable disease, and returned home to see people wanting everything they see others flaunt. Now he says: stuff means nothing.
You are making the assumption that she thinks about things. I believe she just does what she feels like doing and is used to getting her way with no push back. She will most likely never understand why she did not get her way in this. She may say things the PR people tell her to say (she has not really done that so far) but it will all be a put on.
The full sentence is 20 years. That’s ridiculous. You can’t run around like animals chopping off the heads of aristocrats. Like John Legend said, the sentences for ALL these people should be reduced. There are bigger criminals that deserve to be in those cells.
I’ll believe she has serious prison time coming to her when I see it. I have zero faith in the system when it comes to this case – there’s a lot of tough talk right now about the judge throwing the book at her, but I remain skeptical.
Yeah. If anything, she’s having a good day after seeing how light Felicity Huffman’s sentence was. IMO this new stance is an attempt to backpaddle towards the Huffman model. Today she’s allegedly regretting not taking the deals offered because she “didn’t have all the information she has now.” AKA, that Huffman’s strategy was the winning play. Tomorrow she’ll be in solemn remorse mode.
Yeah, I’m going to be way more outraged about her getting off easy than Felicity Huffman, but I also have trouble seeing any other scenario. Maybe a month at a country club prison and then 1000 hours of community service doing something clean and simple (like office work at her church).
As I said in the other thread, I don’t care so much about the prison time, as it just costs tax payer money and doesn’t deter future a-holes from doing the same thing. But five years of strict probation while she performs a gritty, dirt under the nails community service project in a community where she feels out of place, working alongside people who’ve faced actual adversity in life, would love to see it.
OMG. If her “community service” turns out to be working at her megachurch… OMG. I don’t think there’s enough side-eye in the WORLD for that!!! (Especially now that we’ve lost Prince.)
The only thing she’s sorry about is that she didn’t cop a plea when she had the chance.
Do you think they have orange birkenstocks in jail?
If I was the judge I’d ask her if she believes working for her church or having to be there is punishment? What’s she going to say?
+1
I think she will get something around 5 years. Loughlin and Huffman are lumped together but it is like comparing the crimes of a candy bar shoplifter and an armed robber. Loughlin’s crimes were orders of magnitude larger, more complex, deceptive, involve tax/charity fraud and she pled not guilty. Her only saving grace is she is a first time offender.
Lol, I bet she did have a rough day. She “has to have faith that the court will not make an example of her”!!!! Omg. She should have had faith her daughter would end up where she needed to be for college. Or if she wanted to throw money and faith at the problem, she could have sent a donation to the Poor Clare nuns in Memphis and asked them to pray for her to get in. That’s what my mom did for my lazy brother, and it worked! He got a presidential scholarship to BAMA!
Her “Faith” actually means ~
Freaking Admit It’s Thoroughly Horrendous “
I wonder if she is starting to realize that maybe, just maybe this isn’t one of those situations where a rich white lady can pay herself out of trouble.
Those exist?
Lol. I mean 14 days is nothing so idk if you can vote this as an example Mira. Jmo
Poor poor Lori. I hope you rot in jail. Should have taken the deal. You did the crime, now do the time.
Poor u Becky. The world weeps for you.
Nice hat.
Hmph! I bet she had a bad day. Too bad she was so sure she wouldn’t see any meaningful punishment, now ALL the chickens are coming home to roost.
Hoping the IRS charges them both with tax fraud, if they haven’t already done so.
I’m very skeptical that Lori or her husband will feel any real consequences. That being said, I’m having some major schadenfreude over the turmoil this is obviously causing them.
Also, when I stop and think abut it, I find the irony of Lori Loughlin being known for playing a character named “Aunt Becky” while being an actual “Becky” in real life to be very amusing.
Lastly, those sandals are ugly.
Those sandals ARE hideous! I saw them in the store and said, well, they look comfortable. Then I said, nope! Too ugly
Even though the kids couldn’t get into college on their own, I feel that they’re a bit smarter than the mother and father.
Lori will have a rougher day when she gets sentenced. I expect 4-6 months for her.
She’ll be fine. A year in prison, but she’ll be back in no time doing the hallmark movie of this whole scandal playing herself in the leading role.
She’ll spend very little time in prison. Why waste taxes dollars locking her up. She isn’t a danger to society.
She’s being charged with tax fraud and mail fraud. Each is a 20 year sentence. The gov. doesn’t like it when you don’t give them their money. With 40 years looming over her head, I’d like to see her get at least 10 years which is only 25% of what she should do.
I remember when Martha Stewart was sentenced for conspiracy, obstruction of proceedings, making false statements etc. She was jailed on the East Coast for around 5 months. Lori’s case is worse than Felicity’s bc she also faked her daughters’ crew photos. I’m not sure how she can explain this away as she just didn’t understand. She also rejected her plea deal, so she’ll definitely get more time than Felicity. At least Felicity admitted to it right away, was deeply sorry and apologized. Lori has done nothing of the sort.
Neither is Felicity.
Well, I am sure any one convicted of any kind of fraud would agree with you. I’m hoping the sentence is commiserate with a harm to society, not a danger. Jail is not just a preventive measure (keeping a violent offender apart); its also a deterrent.
Didn’t the whole “they were too stupid to know they were committing a crime” work in favor of the trump kids and the trump campaign in general when it came to their attempts to collude with Russia? Specifically regarding the meetings they had in trump tower with Russians? I’m pretty sure it was determined that they were too stupid to know what they were doing was illegal so they couldn’t be charged with conspiracy because conspiracy is knowingly breaking the law. I remember thinking that was so screwed up because, as you said, ignorance of the law is not a defense for breaking the law.
Yea, I think she’ll get 6 months.
I wonder if they ever question spending all that money to get the younger kid in school when she clearly had no interest post-secondary education and would have been just fine going on her merry way as an “influencer.” And all that money on private school and they still had to buy her way in?! At least the older daughter seemed to want to be at USC….
I hope so – at the very least she’s not on the record with this treasure…the whole idea of getting something because you kinda, sorta, maybe want seems like the MO of all these parents (and their egos needed this)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI0BwRtJxLk
The words her “source” uses are always interesting. She will do what she needs to do to “protect” her family. She didn’t understand everything at the time. Source always implies that LL is the poor, innocent victim in all of this.
Sounds like she’s going to throw her initial legal counsel under the bus.
Apparently LL did not even have access to the Web to search out examples of white collar sentencing and how a plea deal almost always guarantees a lesser sentence. It would have taken about one minute to figure that out, just from internet searching.
Oh but you know, they have GRUNTS to do that! Shes the type that has a grunt to talk to the lower grunt who would do the actual work. Think Miranda Priestly.
I think that her daughters were aware and involved in the “bribing” process. This was a family operation.
Also, the rich folks do have a way of buying their way into college through donations.
They should have given it to the college. The money they paid was direct to Rick Singer, aka mail fraud. The other crime was claiming the non-donation on her income tax as a donation for the tax break.
What’s ironic is that money and ego are the two things that got her into this mess and it’s the same two things she’s using to get her out of it. She will fail.
This lady needs to accept she’s going to jail for a long time, purely because she had the audacity to claim it against tax.
So much for American meritocracy, huh? The rich are not smarter, they just cheat. They cheat, but it’s smart to cheat, right, Trump?
As a white lady, even I can see what a pathetic white-lady excuse that is: I didn’t mean it, therefore all the harm I did doesn’t count.
Meanwhile, some poor hopeful had a hard day watching their place at University get snatched up by a scammer.
“She will do what she has to do to protect herself and her family”??? You mean, like, CHEAT? Not quite sure how not taking the deal, prolonging this process and requiring all of us taxpayers to fund her trial-circus says that she will ‘protect herself and her family’ at the expense, literally, of all of us. This chick needs to go to jail. Her actions before and after getting caught are far more serious, underhanded and illegal than what Huffman did. Huffman paid $15,000 to get a higher score on a test for her kid. Laughlin paid $500,00 and fraudulently submitted information that her kids were athletes. Let’s not forget, college applications require a signature where you agree that everything in the form is correct and true. Lori’s pants are on fire and it looks like jail will finally put that fire out. It’s not like she will be making license plates. Her prison will probably be just a cushy as Huffman’s. She will just have a longer reservation. When this is all said & done, the family will still be extremely rich, the parents will have had successful careers before jail and the kids will still be entitled brats who have no interest in higher education yet cheated kids who did out of a spot. Life goes on.
She had legal help she wasn’t doing this as a pro se. Even if she didn’t understand, she had experts who can inform her. How much you want to bet those experts told her to take a plea. She was arrogant and now she can look forward to prison.