Holly MatkinBaltimore, MD – A group of outraged strippers shut down a press conference the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was trying to hold in support of embattled Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby on Wednesday.
The NAACP set up for the press conference outside Baltimore City Hall, but the speaker was immediately drowned out by a group of chanting strippers who were holding signs and demanding that their clubs be reopened so they can get back to work, The Baltimore Sun reporter Tim Prudente said.
“At City Hall for @NAACP presser in support of Marilyn Mosby,” Prudente tweeted as the event was getting underway. “In the background? A rally to reopen Baltimore strip clubs.”
A video showed the rallygoers as they gathered behind the press conference, holding up their signs and demanding to go back to work.
“Drowned out by chants from the strippers, they are canceling the press conference,” Prudente said.
He followed up with one last update after the attorneys left City Hall.
“The strippers are still here,” Prudente wrote. “The lawyers left, saying they would reschedule their press conference for tomorrow.”
Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming recently wrapped up a seven-month investigation into Mosby, who has been accused of violating the city’s administrative procedures regarding out-of-town travel, The Baltimore Sun reported.
According to Cumming’s report, which was released on Feb. 9, Mosby spent a total of 144 days away from the office in 2018 and 2019, to include trips to Portugal, Scotland, and Kenya.
She also gave speeches and served on panels ant multiple progressive criminal justice reform conferences throughout the U.S. and around the world, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Although many of her excursions were paid for by so-called criminal justice nonprofit groups, Mosby is required to obtain approval through the city’s spending panel for any trip that would cost $800 or more, Cummings said.
She also allegedly failed to obtain approval for trips that kept her out of the office for five workdays or more, The Baltimore Sun reported.
On her financial disclosure forms, Mosby said she received 41 gifts in 2018 and 2019, but she didn’t provide a value for those gifts as required, WBAL reported.
According to Cummings, Mosby claimed she had given the gifts up for her office’s annual auction in order to raise money for Baltimore crime victims, according to The Baltimore Sun.
But when the Inspector General asked her documentation to back up her claims that the gifts were donated, Mosby allegedly failed to do so.
Instead, she provided Cummings with a list of the items that had been auctioned – none of which included Mosby’s name as the donor, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Cummings further concluded Mosby established three separate companies in 2019, for which she claimed $7,600 in expenses, according to WBAL.
But none of those companies generated any revenue that year.
Cummings did not find evidence Mosby mishandled taxpayer dollars, but she noted it is not within her power to determine whether or not Mosby’s actions complied with state ethics laws, WBAL reported.
“After seven months of an exhaustive investigation, which State’s Attorney Mosby asked for, there has been no finding of wrongdoing, unethical behavior and most importantly no abuse of taxpayer dollars,” the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said in a press release after the report was finalized. “The state’s attorney is glad that this investigation has concluded and our office is moving forward with the important work of the people’s business.”
Sandy Malone
