Calls Grow For Biden To Pardon Marilyn Mosby Ahead Of Federal Mortgage Fraud Conviction Sentencing

Marilyn Mosby is pictured on August 24, 2016, in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested in Baltimore, Maryland. | Source: Larry French / Getty

Dozens of lawyers are among the growing number of people calling for President Joe Biden to pardon Marilyn Mosby as sentencing for Baltimore’s former top prosecutor rapidly approaches.

Mosby, 44, who served as the State’s Attorney for Baltimore from 2015 to 2022, is facing 40 years in prison after being convicted earlier this year of federal mortgage fraud. She is expected to be sentenced next week.

MORE: Thanks To Trump, Black Women Prosecutors Have The Added Burdens Of Racist, Gendered Attacks

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said a full pardon application for Mosby was submitted on Tuesday and, like others advocating for her pardon, suggested that the former State’s Attorney for Baltimore was the victim of retaliatory efforts by political adversaries who resented her work holding the police accountable for their criminal actions in the Freddie Gray case.

“The persecution of Black female progressive prosecutors is indicative of a disturbing trend that should have ended with the last administration. But yet, here we are,” Crump said in a statement sent to NewsOne. “Marilyn Mosby will be sentenced later this month, and is facing a staggering 40 years in federal prison. Not only were the charges in this case completely trumped up, as Marilyn was accused of using money from her own retirement account, but this entire case is driven by a political agenda. President Biden, we implore you to not follow in the treacherous steps of your predecessor. Put an end to this modern day witch hunt and immediately pardon Marilyn Mosby.”

April Ryan asked the White House press secretary about a possible Marilyn Mosby pardon. “I certainly know who you’re speaking of. I have not had the opportunity to speak to the president about this.”

Press sec says she wants to be careful because this is a DOJ process. @wjz pic.twitter.com/oyTO0VVOCq

— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) May 8, 2024

Crump is joined by more than 50 other attorneys – including notable names like Angela Rye, Bakari Sellers and Harry Daniels – who echo that sentiment he expressed in his statement and signed the pardon application for Mosby.

Elie Mystal, the attorney who is also a columnist for the Nation, recently wrote that “Mosby’s case is special” and that she is the victim of a “wrongful prosecution.”

More from Mystal’s latest column:

I would not necessarily endorse Mosby’s prosecutorial record, or really any prosecutor’s record, but I can support the efforts to see her pardoned nonetheless. That’s because I can spot a wrongful prosecution when I see one. Mosby is on the receiving end of a malicious political prosecution over the kind of infraction that normally goes unpunished. The Department of Justice—the same one that has not prosecuted Trump for any of his financial crimes and slow-walked charging him in connection with the white domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol—was all over Mosby for fraudulently accessing her own retirement money. The federal prosecutor leading the investigation into Mosby’s finances is a man named Leo Wise. Wise and Mosby had run-ins before, over Wise’s selective investigations into members of the Congressional Black Caucus and what the NAACP calls his “refusal to seek a just outcome for those wrongfully convicted—people of color.” Many people might know Wise as one of the lead investigators in the DOJ’s case against Hunter Biden.

Mystal added that he thinks “any case Wise touches is suspect.”

Writer Dayvon Love penned this week a piece of commentary in Afro about Mosby’s pending sentencing and similarly noted that the “federal prosecution and conviction of Marilyn Mosby is an act of the law enforcement establishment punishing her for taking stances against their racist policy positions on criminal justice issues.”

Those opinions from Love, Mystal and the dozens of aforementioned attorneys came on the heels of an open letter to Biden sent by more than a dozen civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, appealing to the president to pardon Mosby.

“Ms. Mosby’s focus on accountability and racial equity raised the ire of highly placed officials including the U.S. Attorney General and other law enforcement officials,” the letter states in part before adding later: “Mosby [in 2020] vowed to prosecute any federal agents who engaged in unlawful actions against Baltimore citizens. Two months later, Attorney Mosby learned she was under federal investigation, a move widely perceived as retaliation for her courageous stance in protecting her constituents’ constitutional rights.”

The letter suggests that timing is not coincidental and said Mosby was “wrongfully convicted.”

Marilyn Mosby is facing 40 years in federal prison and must be pardoned! Last night, on @thereidout @JoyAnnReid broke down how the government relentlessly targeted her from Donald Trump to Larry Hogan and Leo Wise.

Please watch and share! We must expose the TRUTH about the… pic.twitter.com/hEA9gz5Bkv

— a. rye (@angela_rye) May 2, 2024

The letter also adds: “We expect that political persecutions and malicious prosecutions pursued during the Trump Administration would not continue in the Biden Administration. Ms. Mosby’s case is not the only one–it is the latest and one of the most egregious cases. This matter should be corrected because it is a miscarriage of justice and an example of the last administration’s misuse of authority.”

Mosby’s defense attorneys, for their part, have been pushing for their client to only be sentenced to probation. Legal experts have predicted Mosby would not be sentenced to the full 40 years in prison and federal prosecutors have asked for a sentence of 20 months.

Mosby’s sentencing hearing is scheduled to be held on May 23.

What happened?

Mosby was originally hit with four felony counts in 2022 related to allegations centered on a withdrawal from her own retirement fund in 2020. The exact language of the indictment alleged that Mosby “willfully and knowingly” lied about experiencing “adverse financial consequences stemming from the Coronavirus” and that she intentionally lied on a loan application because she was in arrears to the IRS.

Specifically, Mosby was accused of taking out $40,000 from her 401K because she had a financial hardship caused by the pandemic. The Baltimore Sun reported at the time that Mosby earned a $10,000 pay raise that year to bring her annual salary up to $248,000. After she withdrew $36,000, Mosby used it for a down payment on a property in Florida that she said would be a second home in an effort to lower interest rates, the indictment claimed.

Mosby’s lawyer when she was initially charged claimed the indictment was the result of a political witch hunt and that the charges were “rooted in personal, political and racial animus” while she was seeking reelection just months before Election Day — claims that her federal public defender maintained during the trial that was relocated from Baltimore to Greenbelt in Prince George’s County, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

The federal investigation began in 2021 and was initially focused on Mosby and her husband, then-Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby, for potential campaign finance violations. At the time, it was reported that subpoenas were being issued for the couple’s financial information and an investigation into their alleged link to city churches.

In particular, Union Baptist Church in Baltimore was subpoenaed and its lawyer said at the time that investigators wanted to know how much money the Mosbys give to the house of worship.

“I spend more monthly at Starbucks than the Mosbys gave during the time period,” said Robert Fulton Dashiell, the attorney representing the Mosbys back then, adding that the total was less than $200.

Around the same time, independent news outlet the Baltimore Brew published a report claiming then-State’s Attorney Mosby “paid $11,000 to a Washington law firm that acted on [her] personal behalf, which is a prohibited practice under Maryland election law.”

There have been a number of previous instances where the Mosbys found their actions under heightened scrutiny, including suspicions of campaign finance violations when it came to receiving gifts, paying taxes and traveling, for example. However, none of the accusations have ever been proven.

Mosby was also convicted in November for committing perjury by making false statements on a COVID-19 loan application during the pandemic. In that case, Mosby was found guilty of two counts, with each count carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison.

“Justice delayed is justice denied.”@PatriceWillobee, SVP of Global Policy and Impact at the NAACP, recently spoke with @CBSNews about the call for @POTUS to pardon former Baltimore City State’s Attorney @MarilynMosbyEsq.

— NAACP (@NAACP) May 9, 2024

Who is Marilyn Mosby?

Mosby first rose to national prominence during the uproar over the in-custody death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who was arrested in Baltimore for possession of a small pen knife in 2015. He died in transport under questionable circumstances. Mosby called for the indictment of six city cops but ultimately dropped the charges against the remaining three officers involved. Mosby faced tough criticism after the three other officers involved were found not guilty.

Mosby called for system reform after the failure to find any criminal involvement in Gray’s death.

“We know that Freddie Gray did not kill himself,” she said at the time and stood by the medical examiner’s determination that his death was a homicide.

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