Desperate times call for desperate measures, and no one is more desperate these days than reality-star-turned-inmate Joe Giudice.
The husband of Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice, Joe was found guilty on fraud charges along with his wife back in 2015.
At this point, the sentences have been served, but for Joe, the punishment might be just getting started.
A citizen of Italy (Joe was born in the village of Saronno, but his family relocated to Jersey when he was just a year old.), Giudice is facing deportation for his crimes.
Giudice says he knows nothing of Italy and doesn’t even speak the language.
Furthermore, Teresa Giudice has no plans to join her husband overseas, so the move would likely have quite an impact on Joe’s marriage, as well as his relationship with his four daughters.
We say all of this simply to explain why someone would fight tooth and nail to avoid being kicked out of New Jersey.
Anyway, as we reported yesterday, Joe received an extension on his final appeal, which is huge, as he recently earned the support of a high-powered advocacy group called the Immigrant Rights Clinic of Washington Square Legal Services (IRC).
With the IRC in his corner, Joe is trying a new tactic.
Basically, this is that part of the legal drama where the underdog client meets the hot-shot lawyer who vows to put the system on trial.
While Joe’s previous lawyers attempted to convince the court that he shouldn’t be kicked out of the country because he’s lived here for basically his entire life, his new legal team is arguing that he never should have been sent to prison in the first place, as he’s essentially a modern-day Robin Hood.
Giudice’s lawyers now claim that Joe is not guilty of “aggravated felony” (the charge that serves as the basis for deportation) because he scammed Wells Fargo, a bank that previously issued loans in a way that “amounted to consumer fraud.”
“Here the Petitioner will show that a bank legally compelled to forgive a fraudulently made loan should not be held to have suffered a loss from fraud,” Joe’s attorneys wrote in a brief filed earlier this week.
Yes, Team Giudice is now arguing that this was essentially crook-on-crook crime, and Joe and Teresa never should have been imprisoned in the first place.
“Proceedings were incorrectly instituted, and should have been terminated,” the lawyers say of the Giudices original criminal trial.
Even if that swing for the fences doesn’t pay off, Joe might find himself receiving some much-needed mercy from the court.
His lawyers are employing several strategies in their final push to keep him in the States, including reminding the judge that he’s spent the past several decades building a life in the Garden State.
“He married his wife Teresa, a United States citizen, on October 23. 1999. The couple has four children, all born in the United States,” the papers stated.
Aside from calling Bruce Springsteen, Tony Soprano, and Chris Christie as surprise character witnesses, we’re not sure what else Joe can do to conv
Teresa Giudice: Filing For Divorce Once Joe Gets Deported?!Start Galleryince the judge he deserves to remain in Jersey.
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