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Disgraced actress Lori Loughlin is facing 50 years in prison for her role in a massive college bribery scandal.
Now, her attorney is claiming that the entire case is built on a lie.
Lori and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were arrested last year.
They had spent a combined $500,000 — half a million — to ensure that their two daughters were accepted to UCLA.
The plan was to get them admitted as part of the rowing team, but they would not actually participate in the sport.
Lori and Mossimo pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Now, their attorney has added a new claim to their defense as part of a motion to move the trial date.
“[Rick] Singer’s notes indicate that FBI agents yelled at him and instructed him to lie,” he told the court.
He was allegedly to lie “by saying that he told his clients who participated in the alleged ‘side door’ scheme that their payments were bribes.”
Their attorney said that Singer, who is at the center of the bribary scheme, was to say this “rather than legitimate donations that went to the schools.”
In other words, Lori and Mossimo allegedly thought that they were just doing what other rich parents have done for generations.
They purportedly believed that they were making hefty donations to the school … in a shady, indirect way.
We’re not sure how they’ll reconcile that claim with the photos of their daughters pretending to row.
It doesn’t sound like the judge was impressed, because the attorney’s motion was denied.
People spoke to criminal defense lawyer James J. Leonard Jr. as an expert on the subject.
Apparently, the judge’s decision was not the boon to the prosecution that one might imagine.
“This is a defense attorney’s dream and a prosecutor’s nightmare,” he characterizes.
He adds: “This changes everything.”
“They are not upset that the date didn’t get moved,” an insider close to Lori Loughlin claims.
The source explains: “Any new development that might challenge the prosecution’s allegations is good for them.”
In other words, the court’s decision to not move the trial date will give prosecutors less time to prepare to counter this claim.
Not only does it muddy the waters of the trial, but may end up handing defense attorneys grounds to appeal on a silver platter.
The entire bribery scandal was allegedly perpetrated to benefit the children of rich parents.
In reality, some — like Lori’s YouTuber daughter, Olivia Jade — didn’t necessarily want to go to college in the first place.
It is widely believed that these parents would have been better served gifting their young adult children with this cash.
Being in college without qualifying for it academically can be hard. Getting a free house is usually preferable.
Lori has the misfortune of being the “face” of this scandal.
Initially, she and Felicity Huffman shared that burden. Felicity wisely struck a deal very early on.
Lori has fought the charges, and is the most famous name among those charged. Prosecutors will not go easy on her.
We’re sure that the many CEOs and executive VPs also implicated are just glad that she’s bearing the brunt of it all.
For much of the past several year, it’s been widely assumed that Lori Loughlin will be going to prison in the very near future.
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Last March, Olivia Jade ghosted the world and more or less went into hiding in the wake of her mother’s college bribery scandal.
Now, she has resurfaced on YouTube with a special video for her fans, followers, and detractors alike. …
Olivia Jade marked her YouTube return with a two-minute video with an understated title: “Hi Again.”
“Hi everybody, it’s Olivia Jade,” she begins. “Welcome back to my YouTube channel. Obviously, I’ve been gone for a really long time.”
“And as much as I wish that I could talk about all of this …” Jade expresses.
“It’s really hard for me to say this,” she admits, “because I know that it’s something that needs to be addressed.”
“I’m legally not allowed to speak on anything going on right now,” Olivia emphasizes.
“A part of me is like … should I come back to YouTube right now?” she admits. “Because it’s been so long and I actually really, really miss it.”
“I genuinely miss filming,” Jade expresses. “I feel like a huge part of me is just not the same because this is something that I’m really passionate about.”
“But I also didn’t know,” she explains. “I debated for 7 or 8 months, like, ‘If I can’t talk about it, is there a point in coming back?'”
“There’s no point in me just talking for 10 minutes to the camera about how I wish I could say something when I really can’t,” Olivia states.
She continues: “So I’m gonna leave it at that.”
“Thank you so much for your patience,” Jade tells her fans and viewers.
She adds: “Or if you’ve stuck around for nine months just waiting, I really appreciate it.”
“This is the best I can do and I want to move on with my life,” Olivia assesses.
She admits that she is leery of sounding selfish.
“It’s so hard because I’m not trying to make this about me or how I’ve been,” she shares.
Olivia explains that she does not want that to be the message “because that’s not the point of this.”
“Though I’m terrified to make this video and to come back,” Olivia freely admits.
She acknowledges: “I know that I also want to start taking smaller steps in the right direction.”
That makes sense. Returning with a 20 minute video on how she spent Thanksgiving or a new trick she uses on her eyebrows wouldn’t be appropriate.
Sometimes, the best way to return to normality is baby steps.
“The moral of the story is, I’ve missed you guys so much,” Olivia expresses in the video.
She continues: “And I’m just really excited to start filming again and to start uploading and I really hope you enjoy the vlog.”
The video concludes with a note on the screen that reads: “Thank you for watching. I’ll see you soon.”
We have kept fans up to date on Lori Loughlin’s legal battle, but it looks like her daughter is doing just fine!
Well, all things considered.
But as one very self-aware commenter noted, maybe there’s something wrong with a society that showers Olivia with views even after this scandal.
That said, the scandal was never her doing. Maybe we can enjoy her videos with a clear conscience.
In early November, T.I. revealed that he actively monitored his teenage daughter’s hymen, igniting a firestorm of deserved condemnation.
In a new video, he sat down with Jada Pinkett Smith to try to explain and even justify his gynecological helicopter parenting.
A lot of people think that T.I. was being intrusive and abusive for policing his daughter’s hymen.
A lot of people think that he frankly belongs in jail for that. But the Smith family decided to bring him in to discuss it on Red Table Talk.
“I began to embellish and exaggerate and I think a lot of people took it extremely literal,” T.I. says of his infamous hymen statements.
“I honestly thought people knew me better than that,” he complains. His wife, Tiny, was there to support him.
“My intentions have been terribly misconstrued and misconceived,” T.I. claims.
“I never said I was in any exam room, that is an assumption, that is a falsity,” he adds.
“I never said it was being done present day, as an 18-year-old,” T.I. asserts. “And I never said that her mother wasn’t present.”
“Her mom was present,” he clarifies. “This false narrative has just been sensationalized.”
“She did have a problem with me talking about it and I am incredibly apologetic to her about it,” T.I. confesses.
He explains: “She understands my intention, she knows who I am and who I’ve always been.”
“The outside, the noise is distracting, it’s confusing and it’s hurtful and embarrassing, he complains.
Of course, the core problem still seems to be that T.I. fails to understand the depth of his error. It’s more than just talking about it.
Jada acknowledges that she’s spoken to Will about some casual statements that are out of line.
“He says the craziest stuff,” she says. “We educate that joker before he leave the house.”
“He’s one of those that likes to tell stories and sometimes goes too far,” Jada says. “Willow has gone at her dad several times for very insensitive comments.”
She notes: “Whether it was around menstruation, or ‘You must be PMS-ing.’ She’s like, ‘That right there, we’re not gonna do that!'”
Speaking of Willow, T.I. expresses that he is “so sorry Willow couldn’t make it.”
Jada replies: “You know what TIP, I think you might be happy in the long run.”
That is easily the best part of the entire discussion.
You know that Willow would have given him a piece of her mind without the kid gloves that her mom used. We’d have loved to see it.
T.I. tries to clarify: “I’m not there to protect virginity, I just know that is a big move.”
He explains: “Once you make that move there are things that happen that follow, you have to be equipped and I don’t know if you’re equipped.”
“Awareness is my first line of defense,”: T.I. claims, as if that could justify his medical intrusion.
“That’s different, that’s education,” Jada tells him. “You only have so much control.”
Adrienne, Jada’s stunningly gorgeous mother, points out that T.I. would certainly behave differently over his son’s virginity.
“If my son goes out and gets a girl pregnant, how is the household changed for those nine months?” T.I. tries to explain.
“My household is not necessarily changed those 9 months,” he reasons.
“Whereas, if my daughter comes home, my household is changed immediately. So the stakes are higher,” T.I. opines in the weirdest justification of sexism, ever.
It’s wonderful to see the Smith family — who remain the best family in Hollywood, possibly the planet — educate T.I.
He learns some things about hymens, and he does apologize for embarrassing his daughter.
But the core issue is that he should never, ever have done this examination in the first place. If his daughter wants him to know, she’ll tell him.
Want to make sure that your teenage daughter doesn’t get pregnant? Buy her an IUD or whatever birth control she prefers, and make sure she has cash.
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