How Andy Cohen Feels About RHOSLC Star Jen Shah Pleading Guilty To Fraud!
Andy Cohen wants to make his feelings on Jen Shah‘s guilty plea in her ongoing fraud case crystal clear.
As you may know, the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the telemarketing scam on Monday after insisting for months that she was innocent. By agreeing to the guilty plea, the 48-year-old got the U.S. Attorney’s Office to drop the other charge against her — conspiracy to commit money laundering. But what was left was bad enough. She now faces up to 30 years in prison and five years of supervised release on strict terms. Jen also agreed to forfeit $6.5 million and to pay restitution up to nearly $10 million.
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This twist in the legal case shocked everyone — including Andy, who initially reacted to the news live on-air as part of his Sirius XM show Radio Andy. In fact, the Bravo boss did not even know how to respond to what when down, saying at the time:
“I don’t know how to feel about this, Jen Shah pleading guilty. All it means is she’s changing her plea.”
Andy also said the plea change stunned him even more since Jen had just given his 2-month-old daughter, Lucy, a gift out of the blue, explaining:
“I was like, ‘Jen Shah, with everything you have going on, that you thought to send Lucy a gift…’ I just thought that was so nice of her.”
But now that Andy has had time to catch up on everything, he has a lot more to say on the matter. The 54-year-old host took a moment to address Jen’s guilty plea on the Wednesday episode of Radio Andy, starting by addressing his initial thoughts on the situation when the news broke on Monday. He said:
“When we were on the air on Monday, the news about Jen Shah pleading guilty broke. I did not have time to read anything about it, process it, we were on the air and I really didn’t have time to react, process it. I left here, I read everything, I read her, what I thought was a pretty stunning confession of, confessing to all of the charges, and I had time to process it. Now, yesterday comes out all these articles, ‘Andy Cohen responds to this’ and I’m like, ‘I didn’t respond to it.’ I didn’t really say anything.”
So how does Andy actually feel about what happened? Now that he’s up to date?
Like many people, he is “extremely upset” at Jen for not only ripping off hundreds of victims — many of whom were senior citizens — in the telemarketing scheme but also for lying about it for so long. He expressed:
“Having sat with this, how do I feel? I’m upset and I’m especially upset for her victims. I’m upset that she lied for so long and claimed to me that she was an example of someone being wrongly accused.”
The Watch What Happens Live host noted that they filmed season 2 of RHOSLC with Jen earlier this year. He recalled how watching her be so “dogmatic” about her innocence during the reunion convinced him she should “have her day in court,” adding:
“I’m extremely upset about what she did. I’m also upset because, frankly, you get to know someone and you get to like them, you know, when you get to have a personal relationship and you work with someone, you get to like them, you wanna cheer them on and you hate to think that they’re capable of this behavior.”
He did not share whether cameras were there when Jen unexpectedly walked into the NYC courtroom to plead guilty — but that sure would make for an intense episode if they caught it!
Ultimately, he has a ton of questions for the television personality that he wants to be answered one day:
“I have a lot of questions for her, and I’m sure the audience, especially those who supported her and stood by her, does too. I really hope to get the opportunity to speak with her and to ask those questions.”
We’ll see if Andy will ever get the chance to do so. You can ch-ch-check out his full response to the legal situation (below):
What do you think about Andy’s reaction, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments.
[Image via Bravo/YouTube,Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube]
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