After Hours: Wrongly Prosecuted by DOJ in the College Admissions Scandal (From the Archives)
Full Measure After Hours
Sharyl Attkisson
5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 July 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It was known as Operation Varsity Blues, the college admissions scandal. When the FBI wrongly accused parent John Wilson, the former president of Staples International, he refused to buckle and fought back. It cost him his life’s savings— but he won. And now he’s telling a story of government corruption.
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Transcript
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| 0:57.5 | Hi everybody, Cheryl Ackison here. |
| 1:03.8 | I hope you enjoy this special from the archives edition of Full Measure After Hours. |
| 1:09.8 | Hi everybody, Cheryl Ackison here. |
| 1:21.5 | Welcome to another edition of Full Measure After Hours. Today, a fascinating story of a parent wrongly prosecuted by DOJ in the college admissions scandal. |
| 1:27.9 | What a twisted tale you're going to hear about today. It has to do with a little-told story of the 2019 college admission scandal, also known as Operation Varsity Blues. |
| 1:36.4 | You may recall the FBI accused dozens of parents, college employees, and their go-betweens in a bribery scheme where the parents were trying to get |
| 1:45.9 | their students admitted to top colleges. What you probably haven't heard about is one component |
| 1:51.9 | that sounds maddeningly familiar to me after years of covering all kinds of stories and scandals. |
| 1:58.5 | The Department of Justice wrongly accused a parent and tried to bully him |
| 2:03.3 | into pleading guilty to things he didn't do, and then kept piling on more and more charges to |
| 2:09.4 | punish him when he didn't agree to plead guilty. Most people can't fight that kind of pressure. |
| 2:15.9 | First, they don't have the money. It can cost |
| 2:18.2 | millions of dollars in legal fees and other expenses. Second, with all the wild overcharging, |
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