Lori Loughlin's lawyers say new evidence shows she and her husband thought college admissions scandal donations were legitimate

• Lori Loughlin's lawyers say new evidence in the college admissions scandal case could clear her and her husband of any wrongdoing. 
• The lawyers say notes from scheme ringleader William "Rick" Singer show that the couple thought the money they paid Singer was meant to be a legitimate donation to the University of Southern California. 
• Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 to guarantee their daughters' admissions to USC as purported crew recruits. 
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Lori Loughlin's lawyers say there's new evidence that shows the actress and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, thought their payments in the college admissions scandal were actually legitimate donations to the University of Southern California.

The couple's attorney, Sean Berkowitz, said in court documents filed Wednesday and reviewed by Insider that notes written by scandal ringleader William "Rick" Singer could clear Loughlin and Giannulli of all charges.

Prosecutors say Loughlin and Giannulli paid Singer $500,000 to guarantee their daughters admissions to USC as purported crew recruits. They have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges and say they thought the funds were meant to be legitimate donations to the school.

Berkowitz has argued for months that prosecutors in the case have been withholding crucial information from the defense — and that the newly discovered notes from Singer prove it.

"This belated discovery ... is devastating to the government's case and demonstrates that the government has been improperly withholding core exculpatory information, employing a 'win at all costs' effort rather than following their obligation to do justice," Berkowitz said.

 

The new information cited by Berkowitz includes notes of Singer made of discussions with the FBI. In them, Singer says agents told him to lie and tell government officials that he told the parents who participated in the scheme that their payments were actual bribes.

"They continue to ask me to tell a fib and not restate what I told my clients as to where there money was going — to the program not the coach and that it was a donation and they want it to be a payment," Singer wrote, according to the filing.

Berkowitz's motion was filed in an attempt to postpone the settings of trial dates for Loughlin, Giannulli, and several other parents who have pleaded not guilty in the scheme.

But trial dates were still set on Thursday, according to Law 360 reporter Chris Villani.

Villani said jury selection for the first trial — which will involve parents who prosecutors say bribed their children's' ways into USC — will start on September 28. The trial will start on October 5 and last four weeks.

A second trial for remaining parents will start January 11, 2021.

• Read more:
• Here's everyone who has been sentenced in the college admissions scandal so far
• Here's the full list of people charged in the college admissions cheating scandal, and who has pleaded guilty so far
• Here's the fake athletic resume prosecutors say Lori Loughlin used to get Olivia Jade into USC as part of the college admissions scandal
• Lori Loughlin's daughters could be called to testify against her in her college admissions scandal case

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