Baltimore's former top prosecutor being sentenced for mortgage fraud and perjury

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — As a sentencing hearing got underway Thursday for Baltimore’s former top prosecutor on perjury and mortgage fraud charges, the presiding judge pressed federal prosecutors to identify the victims of her crimes.

Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who gained national attention for charging six Baltimore police officers in the 2015 death of a Black man, was convicted of lying about her personal finances so she could improperly access retirement funds during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her supporters have claimed that the prosecution of Mosby is politically motivated.

U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby questioned Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Delaney as he began to argue for a 20-month sentence. “Are there victims and who are they?” she asked.

“It’s a good question, your honor,” Delaney responded. “I get it. This isn’t an embezzlement case.”

Delaney said it harms the public when a public official lies under oath: “All citizens are victims when their public officials lie,” he said.

Delaney also denied claims by Mosby’s supporters that she is a victim of selective prosecution, and said she has repeatedly lied about the case and prosecutors’ handling of it.

“These lies demonstrate that Marilyn Mosby is unremorseful, that she has no regard for the truth,” Delaney said.

Mosby, 44, gained a national profile when she charged officers in the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who was fatally injured while in police custody. Gray’s death led to riots and protests in the city. After three officers were acquitted, Mosby’s office against the other three officers.

Mosby served two terms as state’s attorney for Baltimore. She lost a reelection bid after her 2022 indictment.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Mosby withdrew $90,000 from Baltimore city’s deferred compensation plan and used it to make down payments on vacation homes in Kissimmee and Longboat Key, Florida.

Prosecutors argued that Mosby improperly accessed the funds under provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act by falsely claiming that the pandemic had harmed her travel-oriented side business.

In court documents, Mosby’s lawyers argued that the retirement funds came from her own income and that no one was defrauded because she paid an early withdrawal penalty and all federal taxes on the money. The government said that money remained the property of the city until she was legally eligible, and her perjury harmed everyone who followed the rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mosby’s mortgage fraud conviction stems from a $5,000 “gift letter” she submitted when taking a loan to buy the Longboat Key property. Prosecutors said the letter falsely stated that Mosby’s husband was giving her a $5,000 gift for the closing when it actually was her own money.

“Without the gift letter, the loan would never have been provided and Ms. Mosby would not have obtained the property. No gift letter, no loan,” prosecutors wrote.

Federal prosecutors also said she deserves prison because unlike others convicted of white-collar crimes, she’s expressed no remorse or contrition and has tried to delegitimize the case against her.

“Ms. Mosby was charged and convicted because she chose to repeatedly break the law, not because of her politics or policies,” .

Mosby’s attorneys urged the judge to spare her from prison. They said she is the only public official who has been prosecuted in Maryland for federal offenses “that entail no victim, no financial loss, and no use of public funds.”

“Jail is not justice for Marilyn Mosby,” .

Lindsay Richardson, who served as Mosby’s office spokesperson, said her former colleague has lost an election, her career and her marriage during the federal prosecution.

“Worst of all, she now carries the scarlet letter of a federal conviction,” Richardson told the judge.

Mosby applied for a presidential pardon earlier this month. In a letter to President Joe Biden, the Congressional Black Caucus for her cause, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Judge Griggsby agreed to move Mosby’s trials from Baltimore to Greenbelt, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Mosby’s attorneys argued that she couldn’t get a fair trial in Baltimore after years of negative media coverage there.

Dozens of Mosby supporters waited outside and applauded as she arrived with her family and entered the courthouse without answering questions from reporters. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump was among those expected to speak before the judge.