Lori Loughlin Has Been Released From Prison
Boston Globe / Contributor
After just shy of two months at a federal prison in Dublin, California, Lori Loughlin has been released, according to People. In May of 2020 (yes, it was this year), Loughlin pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud for her role in the college admissions scandal of 2019. Now, her time behind bars has come to an end.
Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli were among dozens of parents who greased palms in order to get their children into colleges that might otherwise not have accepted them. Loughlin's daughters Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose Giannulli were supposedly recruited onto the crew team at the University of Southern California, according to the criminal complaint against her, despite neither rowing previously.
Olivia Jade recently spoke of the scandal on Facebook Watch's Red Table Talk to say she was "the poster child of white privilege." She told hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith, and Adrienne Norris, "I don't want pity, I don't deserve pity. We messed up."
In August, Loughlin was sentenced to two months in a low-security facility. At the time, she told the judge, "I made an awful decision. I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage in the college admissions process. In doing so, I ignored my intuition and allowed myself to be swayed from my moral compass." According to the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Loughlin will also have to pay a $150,000 fine. Giannulli was sentenced to five months behind bars; he also faces a $250,000 fine and 250 hours of community service.
Felicity Huffman, part of another famous family enmeshed in Operation Varsity Blues, was sentenced to 14 days. She was also required to do community service, and brought her daughter, Sophia Grace Macy, along. After her release, she said she bonded with fellow inmates and plans to continue working with the imprisoned population. No word yet on Loughlin's post-release plans.
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They say the way you spend New Year's Eve is how you'll spend the rest of the year. And while a December release was always the plan for Loughlin, perhaps the state didn't want to make her spend 2021 the way so many other Americans are — trapped between four walls.