Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s state’s attorney, pleaded not guilty to four charges of lying and committing perjury.
In her defense, she and her attorney claimed 1) victimhood, 2) politically motivated attacks, and 3) memory lapse.
Mosby sought and achieved national prominence back in 2015 when she overcharged six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. Gray, already under indictment for other crimes, was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. According to police, when placed in the police van for transport to police headquarters he went nuts, rocking the van so violently that its driver almost lost control. During his rampage he broke his neck and died in the hospital a few days later.
Mosby saw her opportunity and she took it: She charged the officers with murder, manslaughter, and illegal arrest. All six were later acquitted, but by that time Mosby’s name as a tough progressive prosecutor against police brutality had been made.
During the COVID pandemic, she saw another opportunity, this time to buy a couple of vacation homes in Florida using a loophole in the CARES Act to withdraw $90,000 from her retirement account, penalty-free, for the down payments.
The CARES act allowed individuals impacted negatively by the virus to withdraw retirement funds without penalty, so she claimed she had been so impacted. She then used the funds as down payments on two homes in Kissimmee and Long Boat Key, Florida, lying on loan applications for the balance of the purchase prices.
On the applications she claimed that she didn’t owe the IRS any money when in fact she owed the agency some $45,000 in back taxes. She further claimed that she was not delinquent or in default on any IRS debt.
If convicted, her career as a budding progressive destined for higher positions is over, as she will be spending years in federal prison.
But with friends in high places (Kamala Harris helped fundraise for her election campaign in 2016) and claims of victimhood, political retribution, and a bad memory, she is now using her skills at milking the system to escape unharmed.
In response to claims of hardship during the pandemic so she could get access to her retirement account without penalty, the prosecutor pointed out that she never suffered a loss of her salary (nearly $250,000 a year). Wrong, claims Mosby. It was her side businesses — Mahogany Elite Consulting, Mahogany Elite Travel, and Mahogany Elite Enterprises, LLC — that were impacted.
The trouble with that story is that these were startup businesses that never got started while she was Baltimore’s state’s attorney.
As for the charge that she didn’t disclose the IRS lien on her two mortgage applications, her attorney claims that she didn’t know about them at the time.
She claims victimhood: “Don’t be fooled,” she said last month after the charges went public. “We are now five months from my next election, and this indictment is merely a political ploy by my political adversaries to unseat me.” She added that those political adversaries “have had a target on my back” ever since the Freddie Gray death that catapulted her into the national limelight.
She reiterated the canard on Friday: “At the end of the day … there [are] ulterior motives for something like this, for an attack like this.”
Erek Barron, the U.S. Attorney who is bringing the charges, said that Mosby “did willfully and knowingly state material matters which she did not believe to be true … [she] had not experienced any of the enumerated financial hardships she claimed to have experienced [in order to gain access to her retirement funds without penalty].”
Barron also charged her with lying on the mortgage applications:
Marilyn M. Mosby knowingly made false statements or reports for the purpose of influencing … the action of [the two mortgage companies involved] … certifying that (1) Mosby certified the only liabilities she owed were those disclosed in the application, when in truth and fact, as Mosby knew, she owed significant amounts of federal taxes; (2) that she was not presently delinquent or in default on any Federal debt, when in truth and in fact, as Mosby knew, she was delinquent in paying her federal taxes.
Mosby’s attorney has asked the court to speed up the trial so that she can successfully defend herself and get on with running for reelection. The court promptly agreed, setting February 18 as the drop-dead date for both sides to file their motions and then a conference call with the judge five days later to set the trial date.
According to her, she’s innocent of all charges, and must get on with the job of getting reelected so she can continue applying her progressive policies (i.e., no charges for drug possession, prostitution, or minor traffic violations) onto the people of Baltimore.
Related article:
Baltimore’s Top Prosecutor Indicted on Four Felony Counts for Perjury and Lying
