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Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are about to learn their fate in their college admissions case, and there are some interesting twists and turns.
The hearing will go down Friday afternoon — it will be a virtual appearance with Lori and Mossimo via Zoom from their home in Los Angeles. As we reported, they struck a plea deal back in May with federal prosecutors.
Both pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud — and Lori agreed to serve 2 months in prison, while Mossimo will do 5 months. He also pled guilty to an additional charge of honest services wire and mail fraud.
Based on their deal, house arrest is off the table … they will have to go to prison.
Now the judge has the power to either accept the plea deal, propose different sentences or reject it entirely. Typically the judge accepts the deal, but if he does not or wants a harsher sentence … Lori and Mossimo can either agree or withdraw the plea and start from square one.
Assuming the judge accepts the deal, the Federal Board of Prisons will decide where Lori and Mossimo will serve their sentences. Given that both are first time offenders, convicted of non-violent crimes, it’s likely they’ll go to a minimum-security facility — not unlike the one in Northern California where Felicity Huffman did 11 days soft time.
You’ll recall … Lori and Mossimo were just 2 of the 53 people indicted in the college admissions scandal. They were accused of paying $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters Olivia Jade and Bella into USC, and faking a photo to make it look like the girls were college-caliber rowers.
One final thing … given the COVID pandemic, once Lori and Mossimo start serving their sentences … if the virus is spreading inside the prison, they could ask for compassionate release and serve the balance at home. That’s already been done in a number of cases, so it’s a real possibility for them.
