Felicity Huffman breaks her silence on the college admissions scandal

In 2019, Hollywood was rocked by the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, where high-profile names like 'Trans America' star Felicity Huffman and 'Full House' legend Lori Loughlin were caught by FBI agents trying to bribe and falsify their children’s academic records to get into Ivy League schools.

Both Felicity and Lori ended up spending time in prison for their roles, with Felicity serving 11 days and Lori serving two months. While both of their sentences were completed in 2020, it’s been three years of radio silence on their parts, until now. Felicity has spoken with local LA news broadcasters ABC 7 Eyeywitness News to explain why she decided breaking the law was a worthwhile calculation for her and her daughter.

"People assume that I went into this looking for a way to cheat the system and making proverbial criminal deals in back alleys, but that was not the case," she told the outlet in a sit-down on-camera interview.

 "I worked with a highly recommended college counsellor named Rick Singer. I worked with him for a year and trusted him implicitly; he recommended programs and tutors and he was the expert. And after a year, he started to say, 'Your daughter is not going to get into any of the colleges that she wants to.' And so, I believed him."

She explained how the scheme unfolded: "When he slowly started to present the criminal scheme, it seemed like — and I know this seems crazy at the time — that that was my only option to give my daughter a future. I know hindsight is 20/20 but it felt like I would be a bad mother if I didn't do it. So, I did it.”

"It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future," she added "And so it was sort of like my daughter's future, which meant I had to break the law."

The Oscar-nominated actress also detailed how her daughter was nervous leading up to her exams, prompting Felicity to have second thoughts. "She was going, 'Can we get ice cream afterwards? I'm scared about the test. What can we do that's fun?’ And I kept thinking, 'Turn around, just turn around.’”

 "To my undying shame, I didn't."

Shockingly, Felicity describes the surreal scene of having FBI agents break into her home and put her family at gunpoint.

"They came into my home. They woke my daughters up at gunpoint. Again, nothing new to the Black and brown community. Then they put my hands behind my back and handcuffed me and I asked if I could get dressed."

"I thought it was a hoax. I literally turned to one of the FBI people, in a flak jacket and a gun, and I went, is this a joke?"

Felicity ended up serving 11 days of a two-week sentence, paid a $30,000 fine, and ordered to serve 250 hours of community service.

"I think the people I owe a debt and apology to is the academic community. And to the students and the families that sacrifice and work really hard to get to where they are going legitimately."

The Associated Press reports that nearly 60 parents and coaches were charged in the case, including Rick Singer who was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars for his role.  The sentences handed down to the wealthy parents have ranged from a couple weeks to nine months, something that Business Insider has pointed out is again a hallmark of white privilege.