The Challenge: On March 12, 2019, Academy Award-nominated, Emmy Award-winning actress Felicity Huffman was arrested by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office and charged with wire fraud and conspiracy due to her role in the nationwide college admissions scandal. Overnight, her and her family’s reputation was greatly harmed. Ms. Huffman became a poster child for the injustices of white privilege in America and was condemned for undermining the college admissions system. Ms. Huffman approached The TASC Group, with whom she has a long-term relationship, to help manage this crisis, clear her family’s name and restore her reputation.

Our Strategy: TASC helped hire a team of experts from across the country to help Ms. Huffman mitigate this issue. This included hiring the top white-collar criminal defense lawyers who were familiar with the Federal Court system in Boston and building a legal team for both Ms. Huffman and her husband, the actor William H. Macy. The legal team agreed not to communicate with the media and referred all press inquiries to TASC. This enabled TASC to manage the media storm and outreach from day one of the crisis. TASC identified reporters who would handle the story responsibly and worked to dispel the myths surrounding the case. We cleared her daughter’s name within days of the story breaking.