College Admissions Scandal

Lori Loughlin Is Staying the Course

She and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have entered not-guilty pleas for their newest charge.
Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli
By Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe/Getty Images.

After the feds revealed the fruits of Operation Varsity Blues, two roads diverged in a wood. Felicity Huffman, arguably the most famous of the well-connected parents charged with buying into a cheating ring to get their kids into specific colleges, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest-services mail fraud in May. Lori Loughlin, the other arguably most famous of the parents, and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded not guilty to the same charges, plus another for conspiracy to commit money laundering. The options were to fight or fold, and the Loughlin-Giannullis chose to fight.

In October, while Huffman was completing her 14-day prison sentence, Loughlin and her husband were saddled with an additional charge: conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, which is related to the allegation that Loughlin and Giannulli had their two daughters pose as coxswain to scam their way into the University of Southern California through a compromised crew department. The new charge did not derail their strategy: On Friday, Loughlin filed her third not-guilty plea, according to ABC News.

It’s not surprising she would stay the course. It would be a little late to pull back now. Oh, bribery? Yes, yes I did that, but not the laundering and the fraud part. No, that wouldn’t make any sense. But maybe because those of us following the case closely have also been steeped in gossip from anonymous sources “close to” the family for months, one that claims they think they’ve made a mistake in handling this whole thing, it seems like the couple might welcome a chance to walk back to the point where two roads diverged in a wood, and take the one well-traveled by Huffman. She’s now home, having served her debt to society (minus some community service and a hefty fine). For Loughlin and Giannulli, the fight continues.