Felicity Huffman's sentencing is 'really bad news' for Lori Loughlin, CNN legal analyst says

Lori Loughlin must be shaking in her boots after the sentencing of Felicity Huffman, according to CNN legal analyst Elie Honig.

Huffman received a 14-day prison sentence Friday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, admitting she paid $15,000 to have her daughter's SAT answers corrected. She was the first parent to be sentenced in the college admissions scandal, but there's plenty more to come, including Loughlin. Unlike Huffman, Loughlin has pleaded not guilty, and she is accused of paying far more money — $500,000 — to get her daughters admitted to college by having them falsely designated as recruits for a sport they don't play.

So Honig noted on CNN Friday that this Huffman sentencing is "really bad news" for Loughlin, and, indeed, every other defendant in the case.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"I mean, this is the absolute floor in this case," Honig explained of Huffman's two-week prison sentence. "This is the low end of conduct, the low end of the dollar amount. She was contrite from the start. So everyone else in this case has got to be shaking in their boots right now."

Honig also explained that Huffman essentially received a "symbolic sentence," which was meant to send the message that "wealth and privilege can't get you out of this." US Weekly previously reported that Loughlin's friends are "concerned," believing she "should have followed Huffman's lead and taken a plea deal and accepted responsibility."