Was Barack and Michelle Obama’s “wild child” Malia caught up in the college admissions scandal last year? That’s what one tabloid claimed last year. Gossip Cop investigated the claims and came to our own conclusion.
“Malia Obama Caught Up In Harvard Bribe Scandal!” screamed the cover of the Globe from one year ago. Using shaky evidence and “guilt by association” tactics, the outlet claims the eldest daughter of the 44th President of the United States was involved in the same college admissions scandal that Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin found themselves caught up in a year ago.
It all traces back to Michelle and Malia’s tennis coach, Georgetown University tennis coach Gordon Ernst. Ernst was charged in March 2019 with “taking $2.7 million in payoffs over six years ending in 2018” in order to get unqualified students into elite schools “as members of the tennis team — even though they didn’t have the skills or credentials to make it on their own!” A January 2014 New York Times profile on the former First Lady proved that Ernst did, in fact, work with both mother and daughter on the court at that time. When news broke about the tennis coach’s indictment and connection to the Obamas, gossip began spreading across Harvard’s campus about Malia’s possible involvement, according to the dubious outlet.
“When students learned about a multimillion-dollar ‘unnamed’ donor, we started thinking it could be Malia,” a supposed Harvard student, who apparently only agreed to speak to the outlet “under the condition of anonymity,” revealed. “Malia is mortified about being dragged into the largest scandal in college admissions history. She’s humiliated, to say the least. It’s not like she could defend herself — if she says anything at all, it’ll backfire, and she knows it.”
“Something wasn’t right,” another supposed Harvard student noted, “because Malia is known for going out every single weekend, literally. But she hadn’t been seen out at her normal spots or hangouts, and some news story about a former tennis coach started to spread throughout campus — raising eyebrows of both students and our professors.”
The publication then mentions its prior reporting about a house party Malia supposedly attended a month earlier. “The beauty was smuggled out of a house party on ritzy Martha’s Vineyard by her Secret Service detail — just before local police swooped in for a raid!” crows the outlet. “Raid?” Most people would simply call that police breaking up a house party, but this outlet has to make sure the fairly hum-drum story of young adult antics sounds seedy enough to besmirch Malia’s reputation.
“If Malia wants to have the ‘full college experience,’ we don’t take issue with that whatsoever,” an alleged party goer told the publication. “What we take issue with is her being whisked out by her ‘men in black,’ leaving everyone to fend for themselves.” Adding in that bit of information is coming back to bite the outlet. It just makes the other students seem bitter because they got caught up in the “raid.” Now we’re suspicious of all the other sources who spoke to this outlet. Perhaps putting Malia in a bad light regarding this “controversy” is their way of getting back at her for checking out of the party before the cops arrived.
Gossip Cop has never cared much for the Globe’s reporting, and this story did nothing to change our minds. Malia taking tennis lessons from Ernst does not mean that she or her parents bribed her way into Harvard. On the contrary, Malia did not even get accepted into Harvard based on her tennis skills, which is how the outlet admits Ernst allegedly got other students into top schools. Nor does the gossip of other so-called Harvard students matter much in determining whether she got in legitimately, as they have no more insight into Malia’s admissions process than this untrustworthy outlet.
This isn’t even the first time Gossip Cop has busted the Globe on their shady coverage on Malia. Last month, we called them out for claiming Malia called off her engagement to boyfriend Rory Farquharson. There was never any evidence of an engagement to call off in the first place, so we had no issue debunking the rumor. That outlet really needs to sort itself out when it comes to the former First Family.
The Globe hasn’t done much better when reporting on the college admissions scandal, either. Late last year, the outlet claimed Lori Loughlin was trying to flee the country to escape prison time. The claim was so absurd, Gossip Cop literally couldn’t believe our eyes. We reached out to sources close to Loughlin, who confirmed our suspicion that the story was to ridiculous to be real.
Our Verdict
Gossip Cop believes there to be elements of truth, but the story is ultimately misleading.