Emily Compagno on Lori Loughlin, Felicity Huffman: It Behooves Them Not To Fight This, Otherwise They Face a Long Time in Prison

RUSH EXCERPT:

COMPAGNO: “Yes, they do. The two charges that Loafer Laughlin and Felicity Huffman and 32 others face conspiracy to commit mail fraud and committing services fraud U carry a penalty probability of 20 years. Point something out for viewers why this is such a big deal. Prosecutors use both of these charges as a significant leveraging tool because of the high and long penalty subordinated with them, right? And you don’t have to prove that there was a public loss of funds in the honest services charge. So, bear with me on these stats. 97% of federal defendants plead guilty and of those almost 50% get sentences below the sentencing guidelines. So there is a benefit to pleading out, right? And of those, almost 60% are because the government recommended it and the average sentence for that kind of fraud is 26 months. So my point is that while these individuals are facing literally 40 years in prison, the average, if they plead out, because of the decades they are facing, is actually only about 26 months. So it behooves all of them, actually not to fight this, if the evidence is overwhelming. Otherwise, they will be facing a long time in prison.”