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Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are still on the hook in the college admissions scandal after losing their bid to get the charges tossed.
A federal judge Friday refused to dismiss the charges against the couple and other wealthy parents accused of cheating to get their kids into their dream colleges.
US District Judge Nathaniel Gorton rejected arguments that the FBI had fabricated evidence, and Loughlin and Giannulli remain scheduled to go to trial in October.
The two are charged with paying $500,000 to get their daughters into the University of Southern California as rowing recruits, though neither girl was involved in the sport.
The “Full House” actress and Giannulli insist that they believed the money was a legitimate donation.
In their motion to dismiss, the couple had claimed the plot’s mastermind, Rick Singer, was told by his FBI handlers to trick parents into admitting the payments were bribes during wiretapped phone calls.
Prosecutors contended that they never pressured Singer to lie — and that they asked him only to be more explicit about the donations being bribes when speaking with new clients.
They further argued that whether the payments were called bribes or donations during the taped calls doesn’t matter — either way it’s still an illegal quid pro quo.
While their motion to dismiss didn’t fly, the Supreme Court’s recent “Bridgegate” ruling could ultimately help the couple, experts have told The Post.
The “Bridgegate” ruling stated that any fraud has to be committed in order to obtain money or property — leaving open the argument that admission to a competitive college couldn’t be considered “property.”
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