Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday for allegedly lying on a mortgage application when she used the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to withdraw funds from her city retirement account.
Both charges – one for the false mortgage application, and one for perjuring herself – pertain to the purchase of two vacations home in Florida.
Mosby allegedly falsified hardship due to the pandemic as a reason that, under the CARES Act, she should be allowed to make withdrawals from her city retirement account. She subsequently, allegedly, requested two one-time withdrawals of $40,000 and $50,000, which she then used to make down-payments on two properties in Florida.
The grand jury indictment states that the official did not, in reality, experience any significant financial hardship due to the pandemic, and was awarded her full annual salary of just under $250,000 in 2020.
Mosby is additionally being accused of lying about the status of one of the Florida properties in order to get a better mortgage rate. Court documents reportedly reveal that she claimed one of the homes on which she placed a down payment was going to be a second home, despite having already entered into an agreement with a vacation rental company. She also reportedly failed to disclose that she and her husband (the president of the Baltimore city council) owe the IRS more than $45,000.
Should she be convicted, Mosby could face up to five years in prison for the perjury charge and another 30 years for each of the two counts of falsifying a mortgage application, in addition to a $1 million fine per mortgage application violation.
Mosby was first elected in 2014, won reelection in 2018, and is running for a third term in June. In a statement to the press, her attorney defended his client’s innocence.
“Marilyn Mosby is innocent, has been innocent, and we look forward to defending her in the court of law, and presenting evidence of her innocence to a jury of her peers. We will fight these charges vigorously, and I remain confident that once all the evidence is presented, that she will prevail against these bogus charges – charges that are rooted in personal, political and racial animus five months from her election,” said A. Scott Bolden.
Mosby gained a national profile when she brought charges against six police officers involved in the death of Freddie Grey, who died while in detention of the Baltimore Police Department.
