-A massive college cheating scandal
and the sentencing of the president's ex-campaign chairman
have exposed corruption at the highest levels of society.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
The past 24 hours have really pulled back the curtain
on how wealth and power operate in America.
Yesterday, a $25 million college-admissions
cheating scandal ensnared Hollywood actors
and some of the wealthiest people in the country.
And today, the president's campaign chairman was indicted
in one case for fraud, and sentenced in another case
after he was already sentenced last week in a third case,
in which he was accused of stealing money
and spending it on a jacket made from an ostrich.
[ Laughter ]
In other words, rich people are insane.
Once you have that much money, it poisons your brain.
You either end up bribing a soccer coach
to get your kid into Yale,
or, if that doesn't work,
you leave all your money to your cat --
which is a ridiculous thing to do,
since every cat already acts
like they have "[bleep] you" money.
[ Laughter ]
"Good news!"
[ Cheers and applause ]
"Good news, cat, you're a millionaire."
"You mean I wasn't already?"
[ Laughter ]
"I'm pretty sure I already was."
But Paul Manafort really had the worst day,
because right after he was sentenced in one case,
he was indicted by a different office in another case
involving 16 counts tied to residential-mortgage fraud.
He was sentenced and indicted on the same day
in a move that will one day be coined "The Manafort."
But the college-admissions cheating scandal
is one of the most fascinating glimpses
into how the wealthy and the privileged rig the game.
More than 40 people have been arrested in the scheme,
including everyone from C.E.O.s,
to the heads of major international law firms,
to private-equity titans, to Hollywood actors.
-Federal prosecutors today revealed what they say
is the largest case of college-admissions fraud
in U.S. history, charging coaches and affluent parents --
including Hollywood elite -- in a massive bribery scheme
to fast-track kids into some of the country's
top universities, including Yale and Stanford.
-The fraud, allegedly two-fold --
parents paying to inflate
their children's standardized test scores,
or faking athletic records to get students recruited
for sports they did not even play.
-Two Hollywood actresses
are among the dozens of people charged --
the TV stars Felicity Huffman from "Desperate Housewives,"
and Lori Loughlin from "Full House."
-Lori Loughlin?
Why didn't you just bribe a college the normal way,
by donating money for a new building?
You already had a name.
[ Laughter ]
The details of this scandal are truly mind-blowing.
For example, parents bribed coaches at prestigious schools
to get their kids admitted as athletes
in sports they didn't play.
In one case, the teenage girl who did not play soccer
magically became a star soccer recruit at Yale
in exchange for $400,000.
Now, that $400,000 went to the Yale coach,
who was in on the scam, and then had to, I guess,
explain what they saw in the new recruit.
"All right, everybody. Gather around.
This is our new star player.
You're not gonna see much of her out on the field,
but wait until you try her orange slices."
[ Laughter ]
Some parents, including Loughlin,
even went to the extraordinary lengths
of staging or doctoring photos to make it look like
their kids were playing sports they did not play.
-Investigators say Lori Loughlin and her husband
agreed to pay bribes totaling half a million dollars
in exchange for having their two daughters
designated as recruits to the USC crew team,
despite the fact that they did not participate in crew.
Court documents say they even had their girls
stage photos as athletes.
-In one instance, a parent sending this photo
showing their daughter playing water polo in high school,
but in fact, the photo was another student.
-I mean, of all the sports to lie about,
I have to say, water polo is the smartest one,
because nobody knows how it works.
[ Laughter ]
I don't even know what a water-polo body would look like.
I mean, is it long arms and a tail?
[ Laughter ]
Of course, the plan would have worked,
until the kid showed up at the pool
in riding gear and an actual horse.
[ Laughter ]
Now, there's already all kinds of normalized, accepted
pay-to-play in the college-entry process,
from expensive test-prep classes,
to legacy admissions, to just writing a massive check --
which is also known as "institutional advancement."
But the guy who set up this scheme --
a businessman named William Singer --
explained in court that he was giving wealthy parents
a way to get around all of that.
-In one phone called, authorities listened
as Singer told one parent how it all worked,
saying, "There's a front door,
which means you get in on your own.
The back door is through institutional advancement,
which is 10 times as much money.
And I've created the side door."
-Imagine having enough money
to legally bribe your kids's way into an elite college,
and thinking, "How about, instead, we Photoshop his head
onto Michael Phelps' body?"
[ Laughter ]
And make no mistake, the parents in these cases
were very aware of what they were doing.
The FBI released one e-mail written by Huffman
when she found out that her daughter's school
would provide their own SAT proctor,
making it harder to cheat.
She wrote -- and this is a real e-mail --
"Ruh-roh.
Look like my daughter's high school
wants to provide own proctor."
She literally sat down at a computer
and typed the word "Ruh-roh"...
[ Laughter ]
...making this -- making this the rare case
where Scooby Doo was the criminal.
[ Laughter ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
This scandal...
[ As Shaggy ] "It was you, Scoob."
[ Light laughter ]
[ Normal voice ] This scandal might be
the most glaring example of pay-to-play
in college admissions, but it's not the only one.
There's already lots of pay-to-play
in the college-admissions world that's legal.
I mean, just look at the President of the United States.
He went to Wharton, one of the most prestigious schools
in the country, and he doesn't even know
how to spell the word "country."
[ Laughter ]
And if you asked him to spell the word "prestigious,"
the red squiggle would just give up and crawl away.
[ Laughter ]
[ Gun cocks ]
[ Gunshot ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
And let's not forget, this is a guy who famously
waged a racist campaign to get President Obama
to release his college transcripts,
despite the fact that, as we learned
from Michael Cohen's testimony,
Trump threatened his own schools not to release
his grades and test scores.
-I'm talking about a man who declares himself "brilliant,"
but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges,
and the College Board
to never release his grades or SAT scores.
-I shudder to imagine what Trump's SAT score was.
It was probably the first time in history
the College Board wrote on someone's test,
"It's better if you don't know."
[ Laughter ]
The culture...
[ Cheers and applause ]
The culture of inequality and pay-to-play
at the highest levels of American society
has been on full display over the last 24 hours.
From serial fraud committed by wealthy parents
to serial fraud committed by the president's campaign chairman,
people are finally getting a glimpse at how it all works.
And they're all saying, in the words of Felicity Huffman...
-"Ruh-roh."
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]