Sandy MaloneBaltimore, MD – Disgraced Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby on Friday claimed she was targeted by prosecutors because she’s “seeking racial justice” even though the federal indictment against her was brought by a black U.S. attorney who was appointed by President Joe Biden.
“I wanted the people of Baltimore to hear it from me: I’ve done nothing wrong. I did not defraud anyone to take my money from my retirement savings and I did not lie on any mortgage application,” Mosby told reporters at a press conference on Jan. 14.
Mosby was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday on two counts of perjury and making false mortgage applications.
The indictment alleged Mosby lied about experiencing financial hardship from the pandemic on an application to withdraw $40,000 from her Baltimore City retirement account under a Cares Act clause that enabled people impacted by the pandemic to access retirement money to fill the gap, The Washington Post reported.
Prosecutors said Mosby claimed two times, under penalty of perjury, that she had experienced “adverse financial consequences” related to work hardships because of the pandemic and then, when she got the retirement money, she used it to help buy two pieces of property in Florida.
And then she lied on both of those mortgage applications by failing to disclose she owed federal taxes and that there was an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lien against property she owned with her husband, Nick Mosby, the president of the Baltimore City Council, according to prosecutors.
The controversial state’s attorney became emotional as she described to reporters on Friday the challenges she has faced to get where she is today “as a black woman.”
“I will fight these charges with everything I have in me, and I will be victorious. … No weapon formed against me shall prosper. I’m built for this, and I will not be distracted from doing my job,” Mosby vowed, according to Justin Fenton of The Baltimore Sun.
The prosecutor claimed she has been targeted by Maryland’s Republican governor, former President Donald Trump, and police for being progressive and seeking racial justice.
She claimed those entities have been after her since her failed attempt to prosecute six Baltimore police officers with the death of Freddie Gray.
“I have had a target on my back, and I get it,” Mosby told reporters.
Mosby’s attorney, A. Scott Bolden, took questions from reporters after the state’s attorney finished her prepared statement, NewsOne reported.
Bolden called the indictment against Mosby a “political witch hunt.”
“I remain confident that once all the evidence is presented, that [Mosby] will prevail against these bogus charges — charges that are rooted in personal, political and racial animus five months from her election,” the attorney told reporters.
But the allegations of racial targeting didn’t ring true to many given that Mosby was indicted by the first black U.S. attorney for the state of Maryland in that office’s 230-year history, The Baltimore Sun reported.
U.S. Attorney of Maryland Erek L. Barron, the state’s lead federal prosecutor, is also a Democrat who was appointed by President Biden.
But Mosby’s attorney claimed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland “conspired to wrongfully indict my client on non-tax related charges,” NewsOne reported.
Bolden said federal prosecutors “were not interested in the truth or exculpatory evidence or justice, but rather only concerned with obtaining an indictment and bringing false charges… at all or any costs.”
Federal prosecutors began investigating the notorious anti-cop state’s attorney and her husband, Nick Mosby, after the Baltimore inspector general released a report in February of 2021 that brought into question the state’s attorney’s travel, personal businesses, and gifts, The Washington Post reported.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) subpoenaed all of the couple’s financial records including their tax returns, bank statements, credit card statements, loan documents, and canceled checks, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Mosby has been under investigation for multiple things over the last two years in addition to the IRS problems, The Washington Post reported.
The state’s attorney has been accused of spending more time traveling than working in her office, prompting the investigation by the city’s inspector general that ultimately tipped off the feds.
Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming investigated the allegations and determined that the state’s attorney had spent at least 144 days away from her office in 2018 and 2019, which means she missed about one day a week for two years.
Mosby has disputed the inspector general’s report, The Washington Post reported.
Cumming also said Mosby should have gotten approval for more than a dozen trips including to Kenya, Portugal, and Scotland that were paid for by non-profit groups.
She was also criticized for using $3,250 in campaign funds to pay for her private attorney, The Washington Post reported.
An attorney for Mosby said the money has been refunded to the campaign.
It was the inspector general’s investigation that revealed Marilyn and Nick Mosby had purchased a new home on Longboat Key in Florida just days before her campaign announced it was working on setting up a legal defense fund to offset her expenses, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Four days after the couple bought the $476,000 condo in February of 2020, the campaign issued a statement that said it was going to “establish an appropriate mechanism to set up a legal defense fund for the tens of thousands of dollars in additional costs” that were a result of the investigations.
Maryland law prohibits using campaign money for personal legal expenses.
In September of 2020, Marilyn and Nick Mosby bought a second “second home” in Florida, The Baltimore Sun reported.
The latest purchase was a 4,000 square foot, $545,000 home in Kissimmee, Florida near Walt Disney World.
Those were the same two home purchases that federal prosecutors said led to Marilyn Mosby’s indictment, The Washington Post reported.
Holly Matkin
