Federal prosecutors after Marilyn Mosby for perjury but won’t provide proof, her lawyer says

The personal lawyer for Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said the Criminal Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing a perjury charge against her over her signature on a document.

But attorney A. Scott Bolden said he met with investigators Sept. 10 and they refused to tell him anything more.

“I say, what document?” Bolden said. “You can’t prosecute me for perjury, or that I lied about a document, without telling me what the document is. Without telling me what the lie is. That’s denial of due process. Every one of them, there were eight in the room, refused to tell us what the lie was, what the document they saw.”

Bolden joined several nationally renowned civil rights attorneys and pastors Thursday at a West Baltimore church to demand an end to the federal criminal tax investigation of Mosby and her husband, City Council President Nick Mosby.

They invited news reporters to the Douglas Memorial Community Church just hours before and a mile away from a planned visit to the city by President Joe Biden for a CNN town hall.

Prominent attorney Ben Crump said Marilyn Mosby and other leading Black women prosecutors in America are ridiculed, mocked, sued and continuously investigated because of their work to bring equity to the criminal justice system.

“Every elected official should be investigated when it comes to criminality, corruption and ethical lapses” Crump said. “However, it is well documented that Black lawmakers and politicians are disparately targeted, investigated and probed.”

A longtime Mosby supporter, Crump represented the families of George Floyd, Michael Brown and other Black men killed by police. He came to Baltimore in July to announce his representation of the family of Henrietta Lacks in a planned lawsuit against big pharmaceutical companies across the country that made fortunes off her famous cancer cells.

Crump said other Black women prosecutors like Mosby, such as Kim Foxx in suburban Chicago and Kimberly Gardner in St. Louis, are fending off political attacks.

Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal tax investigation into the Mosbys and issued subpoenas for their financial records, including documents related to their political campaigns, private businesses and charitable donations.

At least six grand jury subpoenas have been issued, seeking a wide range of financial records related to the couple, including tax returns, bank statements, credit card statements, loan documents and canceled checks. Marilyn Mosby’s campaign treasurer was subpoenaed for records tracing back to 2014, some related to the Mosbys’ private travel and consulting businesses.

In March, federal agents bound for Nick Mosby’s office were led into City Hall and carried out files of paperwork, according to surveillance camera footage obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

No one has been charged. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Baltimore declined to comment.

Bolden has decried the federal investigation repeatedly, calling the matter a politically motivated witch hunt because of Marilyn Mosby’s progressive politics. On Thursday, he again singled out a federal prosecutor on the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise, for donating $100 each to two Democrats who challenged Mosby in the primary election.

He’s sought to connect the federal tax investigation to the administration of President Donald Trump and the Justice Department under former Attorney General William Barr. Bolden noted Barr publicly criticized Marilyn Mosby and other progressive prosecutors.

The Baltimore Sun reported the investigation into Mosby seven months ago.

“I am tired of being tired — of not only their persecution, but the government’s insolence and the government’s neglect and the government’s rejection and the government’s silence in regard to Marilyn Mosby’s case,” Bolden said Thursday.

The Sun reported last year that the Internal Revenue Service filed a $45,000 lien against the Mosbys’ home for three years worth of unpaid taxes. The IRS filing shows the couple owed nearly $23,000 for the 2014 tax year, more than $19,000 for 2015 and about $3,000 for 2016.

The lien was recorded as paid June 28, court records show.

Two months later, supporters launched a legal defense fund to raise money for the Mosbys’ mounting legal bills.

Willie Flowers, president of the NAACP, Maryland State Conference, joined the other men at the church Thursday morning. He said the civil rights organization will donate money to the Mosbys’ fund.

Flowers declined to specify the amount. “We plan to give as much as possible,” he said.

He also said the NAACP will ask its 10,000 members across Maryland to donate to the Mosbys’ defense.

The popular Rev. Jamal Bryant, who led the West Baltimore megachurch Empowerment Temple AME Church, returned from Georgia to join the five other prominent Black men in the show of support for Mosby and other Black women prosecutors.

The pastor invoked the Biblical story of how David slayed Goliath with five smooth stones.

“Goliath represents the government, the system,” the pastor said. “I wanted to to come here and tell our sisters today you don’t have five stones. You have six brothers.”