Lori Loughlin: Judge denies request to dismiss college admissions scandal case

The government ‘has not lied to or misled the Court’, legal filing states

Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli exit the Boston federal courthouse on 27 August 2019. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

Lori Loughlin and other defendants have lost a bid to get their indictments dismissed as part of the ongoing college admissions scandal.

Judge Nathaniel M Gorton ruled in a filing on Friday that the government “has not lied to or misled the Court”, thus allowing the case to go ahead.

Loughlin and others, including her husband Mossimo Giannulli had sought to get the case tossed in March “with prejudice or, in the alternative, for suppression of evidence based on governmental misconduct and for discovery and an evidentiary hearing”.

However, Gorton found that the government had not engaged in misconduct and denied the request.

“After consideration of the extensive briefing, affidavits and other information provided by the government and defendants, the Court is satisfied that the government has not lied to or misled the Court,” Gorton wrote.

Loughlin and Giannulli are scheduled to go on trial in October on charges that they allegedly paid $500,000 to get their daughters into the University of Southern California as crew recruits even though neither girl was a rower. They denied paying bribes and said they believed their payments were legitimate donations.

The pair were among 50 people charged last year in the case dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues”. Authorities alleged wealthy parents paid huge sums to secure their admissions at elite schools as fake athletic recruits or have someone cheat on their entrance exams.

Nearly two dozen parents have already pleaded guilty in the case, including Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman.

She served nearly two weeks in prison after she admitted to paying $15,000 to have someone correct her daughter’s entrance exam answers.

Additional reporting by agencies