Felicity Huffman tweet about back-to-school 'hacks' reemerges amid FBI probe into 'college bribing' scandal

Resurfaced tweets posted from Felicity Huffman’s Twitter account indicate the actor once asked social media users about their favourite back-to-school “hacks” – less than three years before she was charged for allegedly taking part in what has been described as a large-scale college bribery scheme.

Huffman and her fellow actor Lori Loughlin have been charged with at least 40 other people over a scheme in which wealthy parents allegedly bribed college coaches and insiders at testing centres to help get their children into some of the most elite schools in the country.

The FBI said 13 defendants have been taken into custody in the Los Angeles area, including Huffman.

The former Desperate Housewives star regularly tweeted about school, often from her perspective as the parent of two daughters.

In August 2016, she notably wrote: ”What are your best ‘hacks’ for the back-to-school season?”

That message earned attention after it was revealed Huffman was among those charged as part of the alleged scheme.

“Well this aged well,” someone wrote sarcastically.

“More importantly what are yours? Pretty sure the FBI wants to know,” another person tweeted in response to Huffman’s original tweet.

In another message from November 2017, the actor said she was on a college visit with one of her two daughters and attached a photo of two people dressed as dinosaurs on campus, saying they just “came down the lane”.

Prosecutors said parents paid an admissions consultant from 2011 until last month to bribe coaches and administrators to label their children as recruited athletes, to alter test scores and to have others take online classes to increase their children’s chances of getting into schools.

“For every student admitted through fraud, an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected,” prosecutor Andrew Lelling Lelling, who announced the 25m dollar (£19m) alleged federal bribery case, said.

The racketeering conspiracy charges were brought against coaches at schools including Wake Forest, Stanford, Georgetown, the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles.

Mr Lelling said it was the largest college admissions scam to be prosecuted by the Department of Justice. The bribes allegedly came through an admissions consulting company in Newport Beach, California.

Both Huffman and Full House alum Loughlin were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. The FBI said 13 defendants have been taken into custody in the Los Angeles area, including Huffman.

Loughlin was not taken into custody but her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, was arrested at their home.

Court documents said Huffman paid $15,000 (£11,000) disguised as a charitable donation.

Court papers said a co-operating witness met Huffman and her husband, actor William H Macy, at their Los Angeles home and explained the scam to them.

The co-operator told investigators that Huffman and her spouse “agreed to the plan”.

Additional reporting by agencies