来源：《波士顿环球报》
刊登日期：2020年5月27日
超纲词：avenge
Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli threw in the towel last week. The married couple, a Hollywood actress and a fashion designer, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal. Abandoning their year-long attempt to get the charges dismissed, they accepted a plea deal under which Loughlin would serve two months in prison and pay a fine of $150,000. For Giannulli, prosecutors recommend five months behind bars and a $250,000 fine.
Loughlin和Giannulli上周宣布认输。这对夫妇，妻子是好莱坞女演员，丈夫是时装设计师，于联邦法院承认在“Varsity-Blues”大学招生丑闻中共谋欺诈。他们放弃了长达一年的试图撤销指控的努力，接受了一项认罪协议。根据该协议，Loughlin将在监狱服刑两个月，并支付15万美元的罚款。检察官建议对Giannulli判处5个月监禁和25万美元罚款。
Their behavior was clearly dishonest and disgraceful. What’s not clear is why this had to be turned into a federal matter.
他们的行为显然是不诚实和可耻的。不清楚的是，为什么这件事要变成联邦的事情。
Like the dozens of other rich celebrities and CEOs charged in the case, Loughlin and Giannulli were accused of cheating their children’s way into college with the help of Rick Singer. So far, more than 30 of the parents named by the FBI and the US attorney for Massachusetts have pleaded guilty. They made payments to Singer’s “charitable” foundation; he used the money to facilitate cheating on the kids’ college entrance exams, or to bribe coaches to designate the students as highly sought-after athletes. Loughlin and Giannulli, for example, paid $500,000 and got their daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as recruits for the USC crew team, though neither girl had ever rowed.
与本案中被起诉的其他几十位名人和首席执行官一样，Loughlin和Giannulli被指控在Singer的帮助下通过欺骗帮助子女进入大学。到目前为止，联邦调查局和马萨诸塞联邦律师点名的30多对父母已经认罪。他们向Singer的“慈善”基金会捐款；然后Singer利用这些钱在孩子们的大学入学考试中作弊，或者贿赂教练，让教练把这些学生指定为极受欢迎的运动员。例如，Loughlin和Giannulli支付了50万美元，让她们的女儿被南加州大学录取，成为南加州大学划船运动队的新成员，尽管两个女孩都从未划船过。
So rich parents spread money around to grease their kids’ way into elite colleges they might not have gotten into on their own merits. It was underhanded. It was deceitful. It was also the kind of thing that many rich parents have been doing for their kids since the beginning of time.
因此，有钱的父母为了让他们的孩子进入名牌大学而四处撒钱，而这些孩子可能并不是靠自己的实力进入的。这是秘密行动。这是骗人的。这也是许多富有的父母从一开始就为他们的孩子做的事情。
But was it a crime against the United States of America? For cheating in tests and college applications, the parents could have been pursued in state court. The colleges themselves could have sued the parents and Singer for bribing coaches. Was the crime really a national priority? Or was it overkill driven by a desire of the FBI and Justice Department to score press coverage?
但这是对美利坚合众国的犯罪吗？对于在考试和大学申请中作弊，父母可能会被州法院起诉。大学本身也可以起诉父母和Singer贿赂教练。这个案件真的是国家的当务之急吗？还是由于FBI和司法部想要获得新闻报道而做得过火了?
“Since 1930s, the FBI has been obsessed with chasing headlines that made them appear like righteous avenging angels,” says investigative journalist James Bovard, who has made a career of exposing government overreach. It is harder to see what the public gains, apart from seeing a rich celebrity fall humiliatingly from grace, when the feds make it their goal to lock up movie actresses like Loughlin, who isn’t a danger to society.
“自20世纪30年代以来，FBI一直痴迷于制造新闻头条，让他们看起来像正义的复仇天使，”调查记者詹姆斯·博瓦德说，他的职业就是揭露政府的越权行为。当联邦调查局把关押Loughlin这些对社会没有危害的女演员作为目标时，我们很难看到公众获得了什么，除了看到一个富有的名人从体面中丢脸地坠落。
Most of the “Varsity Blues” defendants have been convicted of committing (or conspiring to commit) “honest services fraud,” which is banned by a notoriously vague statute. In a 2009 opinion, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia warned that aggressive prosecutors could use the vague “honest services” to go after “a mayor for using the prestige of his office to get a table at a restaurant without a reservation.”
“Varsity-Blues”案件的大多数被告都被判犯有(或合谋犯有)“诚实服务欺诈”罪，这种行为是被一个臭名昭著的模糊成文法所禁止的。在2009年的一份意见书中，最高法院大法官安东宁·斯卡利亚警告说，激进的检察官可能会利用模糊的“诚实服务”来追讨“这样一位市长，市长利用其公职的威信，在没有预订的情况下，在一家餐馆获得了一张餐桌”。
US attorneys have wide latitude in deciding when and whether to prosecute potential crimes; they are obliged to exercise that power wisely.
联邦律师在决定何时以及是否起诉潜在的犯罪方面拥有很大的自由；他们有义务明智地行使这一自由裁量权。