Judge Refuses To Toss Charges In College Admissions Case

Lori Loughlin, Mossimo Giannulli

Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have been dealt a setback in their legal case after a judge refused to dismiss charges against the couple as well as other prominent parents accused of cheating the college admissions process, who had argued they were entrapped by federal authorities.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton rejected the defense's bid to toss the indictment over allegations of misconduct by FBI agents. In addition, the judge also denied their attempt to block prosecutors from presenting certain secretly recorded phone calls at trial.

“The Court is satisfied that government’s counsel has not lied to or attempted to mislead the Court or fabricated evidence,” Gorton wrote in his ruling.

Loughlin, 55, and Giannulli, 56, are scheduled to go on trial in October on charges that they paid $500,000 to get their daughters into the University of Southern California as crew recruits even though neither girl was a rower. They denied paying bribes and said they believed their payments were legitimate donations.

Earlier this week, it was reported that an anonymous source close to Loughlin and Giannulli had believed that the alleged misconduct on the part of federal investigators would ultimately lead to the case being dropped.

The judge’s decision came after he ordered prosecutors to explain iPhone notes written by Singer -- the admitted mastermind behind the admissions cheating scandal -- when he was secretly working with the government in October 2018.

In court documents previously obtained by Fox News, attorneys for the couple argued that the entire case should be thrown out after notes from Singer seemingly showed that agents had urged him to lie in order to implicate parents like Loughlin and Giannulli in committing a criminal act.

The couple’s defense also alleged that the prosecution was withholding this evidence for fear it was exonerating to their clients. However, Variety reported at the time that in a new April 8 court filing, the prosecution denied both that it acted in bad faith and that the evidence is at all exonerating.