Senior prosecutor praised by Kamala Harris is indicted on federal charges
On Thursday, Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, was indicted for perjury and falsifying documents at a time when she alleged she was struggling financially due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mosby, a Democrat who was elected to her position in 2015, claimed on two occasions that she was suffering work-related hardship so as to borrow a total of $90,000 from her retirement account. She used that money to purchase two Florida vacation homes, prosecutors say.
According to the indictment, Mosby exploited a CARES Act provision, allowing an individual to borrow from their retirement account if they were laid off, furloughed, obliged to work reduced hours, or facing financial hardship for some other pandemic-related reason.
Mosby used some of the money – $36,000 in May 2020 and $45,000 the following December – to make down payments on homes in Longboat Key and Kissimmee, Florida. These payments were made, prosecutors say, while she was earning over $240,000 annually, which was a $10,000 raise on her previous year’s salary.
The indictment also claims Mosby secured her two $400,000-plus mortgages without disclosing she owed more than $45,000 in federal back taxes. One of the properties purchased was sold for a $150,000 profit in November, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The state’s attorney, whose term ends this year, had previously made the national headlines for her progressive politics. She charged police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a black man, in 2015 after Gray died in police custody. None of the six officers was convicted and critics said Mosby had sought to exploit public anger around the case.
Soon after the latest dramatic turn in Mosby’s career, some on social media were quick to share footage from 2017 of Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor herself, praising Mosby’s role in helping “reform” the criminal justice system.
“She cannot fail, and I know she will not fail,” Harris had said at a fundraiser in Los Angeles.
Mosby told the Baltimore Sun back then that she wouldn’t have pursued her career had it not been for the “inspiration” she had gained from observing Harris’ trajectory.
“There would be no Marilyn Mosby without Kamala Harris. When I won [the election for] state’s attorney, Kamala was my inspiration,” she said.
Mosby’s lawyer claims she is innocent, the target of a smear campaign, and, given it’s just five months until she stands for reelection, that the charges are “rooted in personal, political, and racial animus.”
