October! On October 5, a long time from now, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli will begin their trial at a federal courthouse in Boston. It’s expected, Entertainment Tonight reports, to last “at least four weeks.”
Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of paying $500,000 in bribes to have fixer William “Rick” Singer get their daughters into the University of Southern California through the athletic department’s crew team (neither girl participated in the sport, but both were positioned as recruits). Giannulli and Loughlin have pleaded not guilty to all three charges leveled against them, which are conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services mail fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. They’ve maintained since the start that they believed their payments were donations, not bribes.
The court set the date on Thursday despite the couple’s attorney’s effort to “postpone the setting of any trial dates” on Wednesday. Their attorney asked the court in filed documents to wait until disputes and motions were “briefed and decided,” claiming specifically that the feds are sitting on discovery material “that is not only exculpatory, but exonerating for Loughlin and Giannulli.” The scheme’s ringleader, Singer, the documents claim, wrote in his notes that prosecutors had asked him to lie. The pair’s attorney believes this evidence would prove Loughlin and Giannulli thought they were getting their daughters into college through legitimate means (more on that here).
But wow, October. Who will we be in October? What will the world be in October? Will everyone have stopped yelling by then, or will they be yelling more? Will the combined efforts of Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg have solved climate change by then? Will that rash have cleared up? What will Loughlin wear to a summer lunch while she waits? And Giannulli, for that matter? How old will I be, even? I suppose these are questions only time can answer, and so time must.
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