BALTIMORE — The federal charges against Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby will stand and the case will proceed to trial in September, U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Griggsby ruled Thursday.
Mosby’s lawyers argued in separate pleadings the criminal charges against her should be dismissed on the grounds of vindictive prosecution, that Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise, who is leading Mosby’s prosecution, should be prohibited from trying the case and that the government must provide more specific information to support the charges it brought against Mosby.
Federal prosecutors have dismissed the defense’s legal arguments as baseless and denounced their allegations of prejudice on the part Wise and U.S. Attorney Erek Barron. They said Mosby made up a “tale of victimhood” to distract from their case against her, which includes recorded phone calls and a trove of financial documents.
Last week, Griggsby postponed Mosby’s trial from May 2 to Sept. 19 after the defense walked back demands for a speedy trial.
Mosby has since announced a bid for reelection, having argued at first the race would be tainted if her criminal case was not resolved by the time voters took to the polls. Her lawyers said they were concerned about meeting pretrial deadlines, and Griggsby postponed the case after a private meeting with the attorneys.
A federal grand jury indicted Mosby Jan. 13, charging her with two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements on loan applications to buy a pair of properties in Florida: a eight-bedroom house near Disney World and a condo on the state’s Gulf Coast.
The government says Mosby committed perjury by applying for early withdrawals from her city retirement savings account under the guise of having suffered financial hardship because of the coronavirus, which made her eligible to take out money early and without penalty under the federal CARES Act.
Mosby used the $81,000 to make down payments on the properties in Florida, according to her indictment. Prosecutor say she neglected to mention a federal tax lien on a mortgage application and claimed the property near Orlando would be a second home when she had already lined up a management company to run it as a rental, a maneuver intended to secure a lower interest rate, according to her indictment.
The two-term Democratic state’s attorney pleaded not guilty and maintains she’s innocent. Along with her attorneys, she has railed against federal prosecutors, accusing them of bringing charges against her because they don’t approve of her policies. Mosby’s motion to dismiss the case argues the indictment only came about because the U.S. attorney’s office harbors animosity against her.
To support that claim, Mosby’s lawyers cited Wise’s donations to Mosby’s political opponents and comments he made while prosecuting an officer from the corrupt Gun Trace Task Force. The defense also attached an affidavit claiming Barron made disparaging comments about Mosby as a state delegate.
Prosecutors downplayed Wise’s $100 donations in 2018 to Ivan Bates and Thiru Vignarajah in 2018, who were running for state’s attorney against Mosby. They also said the author of the affidavit is biased.
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