Lori Loughlin accuses prosecutors of withholding evidence and FBI of trying to entrap parents in bombshell court docs
LORI Loughlin is claiming that federal prosecutors have been withholding evidence that could prove her innocence in the college admissions scandal.
In a bombshell court filing submitted on Wednesday, Lori and lawyer Sean Berkowitz also suggest that the FBI entrapped defendants in the college admission scandal.
The filing was made just before the trial date was announced in the case, and asked that the date be pushed back given the new evidence.
That request was denied by the court on Thursday and the trial was set for October 5 in Boston.
Lori and her husband will be tried alongside five others and both face 50 years in prison for allegedly paying $500,000 in bribes so their daughters Isabella and Olivia could gain admission to the University of Southern California.
It is a case that has rocked the nation for the past year, and seen high-profile executives, heiresses and one award-winning actress serve time behind bars.
Lori believes that this newly released evidence helps to back up her claim that she and husband Mossimo Giannulli were unaware that they were paying bribes.
According to court documents, this evidence consists of notes taken by William Rick Singer while he was cooperating with the FBI.
"Loud and abrasive call with agents. They continue to ask me to tell a fib and not restate what I told my clients as to where there money was going - to the program not the coach and that it was a donation and they want it to be a payment," he writes in one note.
He later wrote: "Essentially they are asking me to bend the truth which is what they asked me not to do when working with the agents and Eric Rosen.
"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.'
Berkowitz stated that "the Government for the very first time produced in discovery Brady information that is not only exculpatory, but exonerating for the Defendants the Government has charged with bribery."
He then went on to describe the specific piece of evidence he was referring to, noting that it had been in the custody of prosecutors for months.
"That discovery consists of Rick Singer’s written notes contemporaneously memorializing his discussions with FBI investigators 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 in subsequent criminal prosecutions," read the supplemental memo.
"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."
It does not stop there either, with Berkowitz arguing all the defendants should be cleared of wrongdoing, including those who made plea deals with prosecutors.
"The Government is trying to benefit from withholding information in violation of its obligations and the Defendants’ constitutional rights, but then force trial as quickly as it can," wrote Berkowitz.
"The Government should not be rewarded, nor the Defendants punished, for this kind of egregious lack of candor and violation of its obligations."
He went on to write in a footnote that the government's strategy "has already worked to the detriment of those Defendants who elected to plead guilty to engaging in the side door."
Berkowitz added: "In those cases this Court has made findings that the Defendants’ conduct amounted to bribery based on information provided to it by the government, without the benefit of this evidence that clearly shows that it was not."
Loughlin came under fire earlier this month when federal prosecutors released the fake resumés her daughter Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose used to get admitted to the University of Southern California.
These same court docs also included a $50,000 check that Loughlin's husband Mossimo Giannulli wrote out to the Galen Center, the school's sports arena.
Oilvia's resumed claimed that she placed in the prestigious Head of the Charles race in Cambridge, and won regional championships while in high school.
Also included in that same filing were two new $50,000 checks paid out to USC athletics for the Galen Center.
Olivia's sister Isabella had a similar resumé when she applied, and also received rave remarks from an unidentified USC official.
A testimonial on letterhead from the school stated that Isabella is "an earnest, outspoken, incredibly positive-minded coxswain."
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It went on to state that the teenager, who had never before rowed in her life, "has proven to have incredible awareness which has enabled her to organize and direct the boat under to [sic] most demanding of competitions."
That letter was submitted in October 2016, and a year later a similar version was sent heralding Oliva's abilities.
Two months after that, a check was sent to Galen Center Gift from the Mossimo Giannulli Trust for $50,000.