Lori Loughlin faces October trial as defense claims "devastating" new evidence
Actress Lori Loughlin, her husband Mossimo Giannulli and six other defendants are expected to face a jury for the first time on October 5 over charges stemming from the college admissions scandal that accused dozens of wealthy parents of bribing their kids' ways into top universities. The couple's lawyers failed to delay the trial at a Thursday court hearing despite the release of what they called "devastating" new evidence.
According to defense filings released on Thursday, the government had withheld notes written by Rick Singer, the self-admitted ringleader of the scheme, since October 2018. Singer wrote that the FBI told him to lie to his clients by characterizing all of their payments as bribes.
"In the hands of good defense lawyers, this can turn the tide," former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson told CBS News' Nikki Battiste about the latest filings. She predicted Loughlin and Giannulli's lawyers would be filing motions over the next several months in an attempt to discredit the prosecutors' case.
The defense attorneys called "the government's belated disclosure" of the new evidence "every defense counsel's worst nightmare." They claimed the notes were "exculpatory" evidence and called for the court's "urgent intervention."
"The defense has already made it known that if the government made a mistake in not turning this over, they want to see every piece of paper that was filled out either by the government agents or people working with them."
Loughlin and Giannulli have claimed that their $500,000 worth of payments to Singer were legitimate "donations." Prosecutors argue that labeling it as such does not mean it was not a bribe, pointing to an alleged fake resume for their daughter, YouTube star Olivia Jade.
Prosecutors also claim Singer's notes were withheld due to "attorney-client privilege."
