A federal grand jury indicted Baltimore’s top prosecutor Thursday on charges of perjury and making false mortgage applications in the purchase of two Florida vacation homes.
The four-count indictment alleges that Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, 41, lied about meeting qualifications for coronavirus-related distributions from a city retirement plan in 2020.
Federal prosecutors also allege that the Democratic prosecutor lied on 2020 application forms for mortgages to purchase a home in Kissimmee and a condominium in Long Boat Key.
She has been indicted on two counts of perjury and two mortgage-related charges.
In 2020, Mosby submitted requests for one-time withdrawals of $40,000 and $50,000, respectively, from Baltimore’s deferred compensation plans, according to the indictment.
It alleges that Mosby falsely certified that she experienced adverse financial hardships because of the coronavirus, but actually received her nearly $250,000 salary in 2020.
The indictment also alleges that in 2020 and 2021, Mosby made false statements in applications for a $490,500 mortgage to purchase a home in Kissimmee, Florida, and for a $428,400 mortgage to purchase a condominium in Long Boat Key, Florida.
Since her time in office, Mosby has also been the center of controversy for her policies relating to the state’s crime wave, which included keeping low-level offenders out of prison.
Despite the controversy, Mosby had previously been praised by Vice President Kamala Harris for her political role a progressive Democrat in 2017, when the VP was still a US Senator.
‘When we march and we shout about what we need to do to reform the criminal justice system, we better understand that we gotta march and shout with our paychecks – and all of the work that we can do to actually make sure that somebody like Marilyn Mosby gets reelected into that office, to not only get convictions, but have convictions,’ Harris said of Mosby at the time.
‘There are a lot of people who are highly critical of her because she heard the voices of the people and said, “Even if I can’t win I’m going to do the right thing.” It’s going to be rough. It’s going to be tough. … She cannot fail and I know she will not fail,’ Harris added.
Mosby also noted that ‘there would be no Marilyn Mosby without Kamala Harris,’ deeming her an inspiration.
Mosby was required to disclose liabilities, but didn’t disclose that she had unpaid federal taxes from a number of previous years and that in March 2020, the Internal Revenue Service placed a lien against all property and rights to property belonging to the Mosbys in the amount of $45,022, the amount of unpaid taxes Mosby and her husband owed the IRS as that time.
About a week before she closed on the Kissimmee home, Mosby executed an agreement with a vacation home management company giving the company control over the rental of the property, according to the indictment.
She later signed a ‘second home rider’ which provided that the borrower occupy and use the property as their second home and maintain exclusive control over the ownership of the property, the indictment said, alleging that by falsely executing the rider, Mosby could get a lower interest rate.