Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby (D) spoke in defense of her innocence Friday in light of false statement and perjury charges levied against her by a federal grand jury.

“I’m here before you today to state, unequivocally, that I am innocent and I intend to do what I’ve always done since I became state’s attorney for the city and in the city that I love: fight,” she said at a news conference.

A federal grand jury indicted Mosby on four charges Thursday: two counts of perjury for falsely claiming a COVID hardship on an application to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars from her retirement account, and two counts for making alleged false statements on mortgage applications for two vacation homes in Florida.

Mosby spoke for approximately 10 minutes Friday and took no questions from reporters. She said that the press should expect her defense attorney, A. Scott Bolden, to “make himself available at a later time.”

She called Thursday’s indictment a “political ploy” by her “political adversaries” to remove her from office, stating that, prior to Thursday’s indictment, she offered to make herself available to present evidence before the grand jury.

“But the U.S. attorney and the lead prosecutor in the case, who has donated to my political opponents and who has personal animus towards me, has refused to allow me to do so,” Mosby said.

U.S. Attorney Erek Barron, a former state delegate who was nominated to the post by President Biden in July, declined to comment.

Mosby is up for re-election in 2022 and two challengers, Ivan Bates and Roya Hanna, have launched campaigns.

During the Friday news conference, Mosby said that she expected her role as Baltimore’s state’s attorney to be challenging.

“I did not expect to incur, personally, more than $500,000 in legal bills defending myself from frivolous investigations and attacks on nearly every front,” Mosby said, her voice cracking. “I did not expect for an investigation into my professional travel — which I asked for — to somehow snowball into state ethics and state election board inquiries, federal investigations and, ultimately, a federal indictment.”

Mosby requested that the city’s Office of the Inspector General open an investigation following reporting by the Baltimore Brew regarding her work travel. The investigation revealed that, between 2018 and 2019, Mosby had been out of town for 144 days and was often given gifts by event sponsors. As a result of the report, Mosby submitted an amended report to the Maryland State Ethics Commission in July 2020.

“I’m so disappointed but, unfortunately, not shocked that my family and I find ourselves in this position,” Mosby said Friday.

Baltimore’s top prosecutor said she’s “had a target on [her] back” since she announced charges against the six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray in 2015.

“As a state’s attorney for Baltimore City, I’ve used my power and my discretion to do things that a lot of people in this country just don’t like,” Mosby told the media.

She rattled off a list of actions she’s taken since she’s been in office, including prosecuting law enforcement officers, exonerating people facing life sentences and helping others secure parole.

During the pandemic, Mosby suspended prosecutions of drug possession crimes, prostitution, trespassing and nuisance offenses during the pandemic.

“​​I get it: This is not what prosecutors usually do,” Mosby said Friday. “And many people will forever hate me for it.”

Mosby has caught heat from Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) and Republican lawmakers, who accuse her of also failing to prosecute violent criminals.

In November, Hogan said Mosby’s handling of criminal prosecutions was contributing to violent crime in the city and announced he would withhold funding until her office produced statistics on prosecutions, plea deals and case dismissals.

Weeks later, Hogan criticized Mosby as a “prosecutor … that refuses to prosecute violent criminals” on Fox News Sunday.

Mosby responded in an open letter defending her record and condemning the acrimonious relationship between Hogan and city leaders.

A Hogan spokesman declined to comment on Mosby’s indictment Friday.

The charges

According to prosecutors, Mosby applied for $90,000 in retirement distributions through a CARES Act provision in 2020.

To qualify to withdraw money from her retirement account, Mosby certified on an application form that she experienced financial hardships because of the pandemic.

But federal prosecutors say that Mosby received her full gross salary of $247,955.58 in 2020. She ultimately withdrew $81,000, in two installments, from the account without a tax penalty, according to the indictment.

Bolden said on a daily online broadcast Thursday that the CARES Act provision allowed people to apply for retirement distributions if they were financially impacted “in any way,” and pointed to her travel-related businesses first reported on by the Baltimore Brew.

Mosby also faces two counts of allegedly making false statements on mortgage loan applications for a home in Kissimmee, Fla., and a condominium in Long Boat Key.

According to the indictment, Mosby neglected to disclose a $45,022 federal tax lien against her and her husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick J. Mosby (D), for calendar years 2014, 2015 and 2016 on applications for both Florida properties.

Baltimore City Circuit Court records show that the tax liens were placed in February 2020 and ultimately paid in June 2021, after the purchase of the Florida properties.

The maximum penalty for perjury is five years in federal prison; the maximum penalty for making false mortgage applications is 30 years.

By Hannah Gaskill

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include additional detail about the relations

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby (D) was indicted by a federal grand jury on four charges Thursday, including perjury for falsely claiming a COVID-19 hardship on applications to withdraw $90,000 from her retirement account.

The withdrawals, without a tax penalty, were a temporary financial option created by the federal CARES Act for people who suffered hardships during the pandemic. Mosby’s annual salary is $247,955.58.

Mosby’s defense attorney, A. Scott Bolden, released a lengthy statement after the indictment.

He said the “bogus charges” were “rooted in personal, political and racial animus five months from her election.”

Mosby faces two counts of perjury for the two separate withdrawals from the retirement account citing coronavirus-related hardships and two counts of making a false statement on a mortgage loan application.

Federal prosecutors say those false statements were made on mortgage applications for a home in Kissimmee, Fla., and a condominium in Long Boat Key, three hours to the west. As part of both applications, Mosby did not disclose a federal tax lien of $45,022 that had been placed against her and her husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick J. Mosby (D), 42.

After withdrawing the cash from her retirement account, Mosby took out a $490,500 mortgage on the Kissimmee home and a $428,400 mortgage on the Long Boat Key condo.

In each application, Mosby also responded “no” in response to the question: “Are you presently delinquent or in default on any Federal debt or any other loan, mortgage, financial obligation, bond, or loan guarantee,” even though she was delinquent in paying federal taxes to the IRS, prosecutors said.

The Mosbys jointly had outstanding federal income tax liens for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 calendar years totaling $45,022, which was paid Feb. 21, 2020, according to a filing with the Baltimore City Circuit Court clerk’s office. Nick Mosby repeatedly told the press there were no such any such tax liens against the couple by the federal government.

Bolden said Thursday that Marilyn Mosby wasn’t aware of the tax lien and so couldn’t have lied on the mortgage paperwork.

Nick Mosby has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

According to the indictment, Marilyn Mosby also signed a “second home rider” for the Kissimmee property, representing to the mortgage company that the house would be used primarily as a personal residence for at least one year and would not be rented as a vacation property. The rider was signed on Sept. 2, 2020; a week earlier, on Aug. 25, Mosby had signed an agreement with a vacation home management company to control the property, according to the indictment.

By saying the home would be for personal, and not rental, use, Mosby could secure a lower interest rate, federal prosecutors said.

The purchase of the two Florida properties first disclosed by the Baltimore Brew news website last spring.

On the perjury charges, prosecutors allege that Mosby lied on paperwork for two withdrawals from her retirement account: $40,000 on May 26, 2020 and $50,000 on Dec. 29, 2020.

To qualify for a retirement distribution through the CARES Act provision, Mosby certified that she experienced adverse financial consequences from the pandemic for one of four allowable reasons: as a result of being quarantined, furloughed, or laid off; having reduced work hours; being unable to work due to lack of childcare; or the closing or reduction of hours of a business she owned or operated.

Federal prosecutors said that Mosby did not experience any such financial hardships and received her full gross salary of $247,955.58 from Jan. 1, 2020 through Dec. 29, 2020, in bi-weekly gross pay direct deposits of $9,183.54.

On Roland Martin Unfiltered, a daily online broadcast, Bolden said the CARES Act provision allowed people affected financially “in any way” and that Mosby’s travel-related side businesses had taken a hit. “Her accountant urged her to take that money and she took that money” to buy homes, Bolden said.

“Today, we have the indictment, which are mere allegations. Tomorrow, we will fight vigorously for the truth, justice and I believe Ms. Mosby’s innocence will prevail,” Bolden said in the written statement.

The maximum penalty for perjury is five years in federal prison; the maximum penalty for making false mortgage applications is 30 years.

An initial hearing in U.S. District Court has not been scheduled.

Late Thursday, the Office of the State’s Attorney issued a brief statement saying “State’s Attorney Mosby and the office remain completely focused and wholly committed to serving the citizens of our city. Our leadership and our frontline prosecutors are some of the best in the world and we will not be distracted or sidetracked from our mission to make Baltimore a safer community.”

Mosby, a Democrat, faces reelection this year, first with a June 28 primary in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 11 to 1, making the Nov. 8 general election an all but foregone conclusion.

She held a reelection fundraiser Nov. 18, and another one, a virtual event billed as a “celebrity birthday bash,” Wednesday night. She will turn 42 on Jan. 22.

Two former assistant state’s attorneys have announced they were candidates for Mosby’s seat in the Democratic primary — Roya Hanna, 45, and Ivan J. Bates, 53, who ran unsuccessfully against Mosby in 2018.

Mosby was first elected in 2014, defeating incumbent Gregg L. Bernstein. She gained national notoriety following the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, 25, a week after he sustained a spinal cord injury during a ride in the back of a police wagon, when she charged six officers involved in arresting and transporting the man who was handcuffed and shackled. All pleaded not guilty.

At the time, Mosby was criticized by some for overreaching when she hastily brought the charges, amid looting and rioting that swept parts of the city. One officer’s trial ended in a mistrial, and two others were acquitted before Mosby announced in July 2016 that charges against the remaining three officers would be dropped.

In 2018, with the backing of much of the city’s Black political hierarchy, she won a three-way primary against Bates and Thiruvendran “Thiru” Vignarajah, a former assistant U.S. attorney, assistant state’s attorney and deputy attorney general.

Throughout her second term, Mosby continued to carefully foster her national presence, testifying on Capitol Hill and appearing at numerous out-of-town conferences. An in-depth news story by Baltimore Brew into Mosby’s extensive out-of-town travel — much of which was reimbursed by the sponsors — prompted her to ask the Baltimore Office of the Inspector General to investigate.

The IG found that she had been away from the office 144 days during 2018 and 2019 — some of them requiring international travel — and been given dozens of gifts by event sponsors. The findings caused Mosby to file an amended report with the Maryland State Ethics Commission in July 2020.

That filing, the Brew found, also revealed that Mosby had created Mahogany Elite Travel, Mahogany Elite Consulting and Mahogany Elite Enterprises LLC in May 2019.

Nick Mosby also created a consulting company, Monumental Squared LLC, whose address was the same as a Baltimore developer and campaign contributor, the Brew later found.

Last spring, a federal grand jury subpoenaed a variety of records belonging to the Mosbys, including the couple’s business records, travel records, campaign reports and charitable donations, according to published reports at the time. FBI agents seized some of Nick Mosby’s records at his Baltimore City Hall office.

Last summer, the “Mosby 2021 Defense Fund” appeared online, soliciting money to pay legal bills for the Mosbys, after acknowledging they were under investigation by federal authorities.

Bolden said Thursday that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland had rebuffed multiple attempts to discuss their investigation. He said the indictment filed Thursday was “a far cry from criminal tax evasion and tax related charges that were at the heart of this federal investigation.”

In 2020, Marilyn Mosby initiated an experiment of not prosecuting drug possession crimes, prostitution, trespassing and nuisance offenses. A year later, she formally adopted the policy, saying the “era of tough-on-crime prosecution” was over.

The decision drew some criticism by police and some in the political arena, including Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr., and was questioned by others, including the federal judge overseeing the U.S. Department of Justice consent decree with the city police department. The city entered into the DOJ agreement after investigators found that police officers routinely violated the constitutional rights of residents.

Hoping to blunt an increase in violent crime across Maryland, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) rolled out a familiar law-and-order policy vision on Monday, including proposed sharp increases in police spending and a crackdown on repeat offenders who use firearms to prey on others.

Hogan said he will seek $500 million over the next three years to boost officer pay, increase aid to local police departments by 50%, and “fully fund” victim services providers. He will also earmark $50 million for improvements to the Maryland State Police barracks and a new tactical services building for the agency’s Special Operations Division.

The governor also announced that he will again seek General Assembly support for a variety of sentencing proposals that lawmakers have rejected — or refused to even consider — in the past.

Speaking to reporters, the term-limited governor cast the spending requests and legislative proposals as part of his “Re-Fund The Police” initiative, a counterpoint to “Defund the Police,” a movement sparked two years ago following the death of George Floyd.

“There is nothing more important than addressing the violent crime crisis,” Hogan told reporters. “Trying to reduce crime by defunding the police is a dangerous and radical idea.” Hogan spoke while standing in front of a group of policy agency leaders in uniform.

Hogan did not explain how all of the $500 million he is seeking would be used. Some details, he said, would be contained in the his proposed FY 2023 budget, which he will make public next week.

Because he is set to leave office next January, the governor said he will propose legislation to make the increase in local police aid “permanent, so that the next governor won’t be able to cut it.”

Data on the website of the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victims Services run only to 2019, but numbers supplied by the office show that homicides and non-fatal shootings have increased over the last three years.

Homicides in the state increased from 498 in 2019 to 662 in 2021, a jump of 33%, while non-fatal shootings climbed from 987 in 2019 to 1,342 in 2021, a 36% increase. An official cautioned that the 2021 numbers are preliminary.

In addition to his funding proposal, which requires legislative approval, Hogan will again seek General Assembly support for two safety measures.

His Violent Firearms Offender Act would toughen penalties for offenders who use or illegally possess firearms. The Judicial Transparency Act would require the state Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy “track and publish detailed information on the sentences that are handed down by judges for violent crimes.”

As he has throughout his tenure in office, including in October, when he announced $150 million in new police funding, Hogan was critical of judges and local prosecutors who fail to sentence repeat offenders more harshly.

Maryland lawmakers begin their 2022 legislative session on Wednesday. Hogan has introduced these measures in prior sessions, without success. He said his proposals are popular with the public and he rattled off a set of poll results, though he did not identify the survey that produced them.

Hogan also said Monday that the state will begin tracking open warrants, “beginning in high-crime areas in Baltimore City.”

“We need transparency on whether judges are issuing requested warrants, and aggressive and immediate enforcement of all open warrants,” he said.

Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) said the legislature is eager to work with the administration on boosting public safety and helping under-invested communities. But Hogan “missed the moment to have an honest conversation” by engaging in bumper-sticker sloganeering, he said.

“If you look at the major jurisdictions, and the jurisdictions that he is pointing toward for increases in crime, those jurisdictions have increased their investment in public safety,” Smith said. “No one is defunding the police. It’s just an intellectually dishonest tag-line.”

Smith said any bill that includes mandatory minimum sentences — like Hogan’s firearm offenders bill — are “a non-starter.”

House Judiciary Committee Chair Luke H. Clippinger (D-Baltimore) noted that as governor, Hogan has been in charge of the Department of Public Safety and Correction Services, and the Department of Parole and Probation, for seven years.

“We need somebody who can actually take the next steps and acknowledge that — under their administration — we have seen a huge increase in murders, a huge increase in rapes,” he said. “If he wants to change the subject of funding or defunding the police, that’s fine. I’m look at what he’s doing with the money (he has) — and it’s completely unsatisfactory.”

Hogan has undertaken efforts to build a national profile for himself in recent years — serving as head of the National Governors Association, campaigning for candidates willing to buck former President Trump, and appearing on national TV interviews.

He appeared to suggest his rejection of “Defund the Police” efforts led some big-city mayors to boost public safety funding. “Even in the most progressive cities all across the country, leaders are now following our lead and admitting that instead of defunding, they need more investment in public safety.”

by Bruce DePuyt