Actress Felicity Huffman could spend as little as one month in prison for her role in the college admissions scandal.
According to NBC investigations correspondent Tom Winter, prosecutors have recommended that Huffman spend one month in prison and pay a fine of $20,000. “They write in a sentencing memo that Huffman’s conduct was, ‘deliberate and manifestly criminal,'” Winter noted.
NEW: Federal prosecutors call for Hollywood actress Felicity Huffman to spend a month in prison and pay a $20,000 fine following her guilty plea in the college admissions case.
They write in a sentencing memo that Huffman’s conduct was, “deliberate and manifestly criminal.”
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) September 6, 2019
Winter wrote that the prosecutors also recommended that Huffman follow her prison sentence with a year of supervised release.
“In the context of this case, neither probation nor home confinement (in a large home in the Hollywood Hills with an infinity pool) would constitute meaningful punishment or deter others from committing similar crimes,” the prosecutors wrote.
They added that Huffman’s “efforts weren’t driven by need or desperation, but by a sense of entitlement, or at least moral cluelessness, facilitated by wealth and insularity.”
Huffman’s attorney’s countered the prosecution’s recommendation with a request for community service and a year of probation. “27 people wrote letters of support to the judge including her husband William Macy and actress Eva Longoria,” Winter added.
NEW: Felicity Huffman, through her attorneys, has asked the judge for one year of probation and community service.
27 people wrote letters of support to the judge including her husband William Macy and actress Eva Longoria. https://t.co/abNMJDnP4m
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) September 6, 2019
The Oscar-nominated actress entered a guilty plea in May of this year after a 10-month FBI investigation code-named Operation Varsity Blues revealed that she had paid off an SAT proctor to change the answers on her daughter’s college entrance exam. Huffman admitted to paying $15,000 to the proctor of Sofia Grace Macy’s SAT to correct her wrong answers. (RELATED: Felicity Huffman Pleads Guilty In College Bribery Scandal)
At the time of her guilty plea, prosecutors had recommended that Huffman spend four months in prison along with the $20,000 fine.
Huffman reportedly also asked about a similar arrangement for another child, although she never followed through with that.
Actress Lori Loughlin, who has pleaded “not guilty,” was also charged in the aftermath of that investigation.