(CNN) Internal admissions emails from the University of Southern California made public through a court filing reveal that family wealth was a factor in university enrollment discussions in recent years.

The admissions documents, which were made public Tuesday, were first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The filing was made in District Court in Massachusetts by Martin Weinberg, an attorney for Robert Zangrillo, in an attempt to show his client was following established admissions practice at USC.

The university said in a statement Tuesday that Zangrillo's filing was a diversionary tactic meant to deflect attention from his criminal indictments, an assertion Weinberg contests.

Zangrillo has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering related to money sent to an account controlled by Donna Heinel, a USC athletics official, and payments to William "Rick" Singer , the mastermind of the college admissions scam , to get his daughter admitted to USC.

Heinel, who was fired by USC in March, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges. Her attorney, Nina Marino, told the Los Angeles Times in a statement that the emails show "an aspect of USC admission that was directly linked to donations," and said Heinel "did not create this system."

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