“Full House” was one of the staples in American television in the 1990’s along with “Family Matters,” “Saved by the Bell,” “90210,” “Roseanne,” “Melrose Place” and a litany of others.
Sometimes they comeback to be modernized like what ABC did with the revival of “Roseanne” and with “Full House” when Netflix brought back a lot of the same cast with “Fuller House.”
But “Fuller House” star Lori Loughlin was just charged in an FBI probe bribery scandal and she just announced something shocking about her upcoming trial.
You already know Lori Loughlin and her clothing designer husband Mossimo Giannulli allegedly bribed $500,000 to the University of Southern California’s Crew even though neither one of their daughters are actually on the team.
In a massive nationwide FBI sting, they were two of the approximate fifty people who were charged in education scandals.
The FBI charged them both with Mail Fraud.
A source told E!, “She has been in complete denial and thought maybe she could skate by. She refused to accept any jail time and thought the DA was bluffing. She was adamant she wouldn’t do any jail time. Lori is finally realizing just how serious this is. She is seeing the light that she will do jail time and is freaking out.”
So the conceited actress called their bluff but the prosecutors refused to play games with the celebrity couple. After rejecting the plea deal offered by the prosecutors’ office, they slammed them with even more charges, which are for the moment undisclosed. Many experts believe she could serve up to two years in prison.
For instance, the prosecutors are seeking a 4-month sentence for another famous actress charged, Felicity Huffman, who admitted her guilt immediately and read an apologetic statement to the court.
Facing upwards of at least several years in prison, Loughlin and Giannulli plan to fight back and take their cases to trial.
Loughlin reportedly wants to “preserve her reputation.”
An anonymous insider told People, “You read the complaint and they look like criminal masterminds. But they really didn’t know the legalities of what was going on. They’re not lawyers and they’re not experts. They were parents who simply wanted to make sure that their daughters got into a good school.”
No, it’s not that simple. Sure, they were looking out for their daughters – as anybody would want the best for their kids – but when you bribe a prestigious university to solidify that, it’s a crime.
It’s too little too late for Loughlin and Giannulli and that’s why they’re forced to fight it in court. If they had admitted their alleged guilt then they may have gotten a similar sentence to Huffman.
A source also told People, “Everyone has seen snippets of the evidence, but there’s a lot more out there. When you look at it in context, you can argue that this is a woman who didn’t understand exactly what she was doing — and she was being counseled and guided by a man who this was his area of expertise. When the evidence comes out, she’ll have a case to make … At this point, if she pleads guilty, she feels like the mitigating evidence will never see the light of day.”
Now they are planning to use “ignorance” as a defense that they had no idea “bribery” was a crime.