Judge Presiding Over Lori Loughlin Case Says He Is Disturbed By Her Allegations Against The Government

United States District Judge Nathaniel Gorton has responded to allegations made by Lori Loughlin’s legal team against prosecutors, accusing them of misconduct. He emphasized that he is disturbed by these claims and that they will be taken seriously, according to Variety.

This could ultimately be a win for Loughlin and her designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, who are both facing bribery and money laundering charges for their alleged role in the college admissions scandal. Their legal team has accused prosecutors of manipulating Rick Singer, the admitted mastermind of the scheme, into trapping his high-profile clients into crime without their knowledge.

The couple’s lawyers believe that at the time Singer was working with the pair to get their daughters into college, federal agents were already on to what was going on. They further believe that Singer was forced to “bend the truth” in calls with his clients that would be recorded and shared with the FBI. Thus, the couple’s attorneys suggest that they were never made aware that the $500,000 they paid would be taken as a bribe.

On Friday, Gorton released the following statement regarding these accusations.

“The Court considers the allegations in Singer’s October notes to be serious and disturbing. While government agents are permitted to coach cooperating witnesses during the course of an investigation, they are not permitted to suborn the commission of a crime.”

The notes that Gorton is referring to are those made by Singer regarding his cooperation with federal agents. He claimed that he was forced to mislead his clients by not telling them how their money would really be used.

“They continue to ask me to tell a fib and not restate what I told my clients as to where their money was going — to the program, not the coach and that it was a donation and they want it to be a payment,” he wrote.

Gorton’s response is lengthy and covers three pages. Within this response, he ordered prosecutors to respond to the allegations against them.

The ultimate goal of Loughlin and Giannulli’s legal team in raising these concerns is to potentially have the charges against them dropped. As of now, they are expected to face trial in October.

As The Inquisitr previously reported, prosecutors involved with this case have already denied claims of misconduct and have stated that there is no reason for the charges against the couple to be dropped. They believe that they have significant evidence to prove that Loughlin and Giannulli knew exactly what they were doing.