Federal judge makes some documents public in federal criminal case against Marilyn Mosby

Some previously sealed documents in the criminal case against Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby will become public after a federal judge sided with The Baltimore Sun and other news outlets who requested the court revisit its decision to seal certain filings.

Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby partially approved the news outlets’ requests in a ruling Thursday, ordering the clerk of court to unseal four documents while keeping others closed from public view. The Sun, the Maryland Daily Record and The Baltimore Banner filed the request in late April.

Mosby, through her attorney A. Scott Bolden, filed a motion in support of unsealing some of the documents, which is what Griggsby approved.

The papers being made public are letters between Bolden and Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise that Bolden filed to support Mosby’s motion for a status conference between her, prosecutors and the judge. That conference occurred March 30.

The letters are about what evidence exists, with Bolden asking the government to share all exculpatory evidence it has in regards to his client, even for crimes or transgressions that aren’t the subject of Mosby’s case.

Mosby is charged with two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements on loan applications in order to purchase two Florida vacation homes: an eight-bedroom rental near Disney World and a condo on the state’s Gulf Coast.

She and her lawyers have maintained her innocence, claiming federal prosecutors are racist and coming after her for political reasons.

The two-term Democrat also is running for reelection, with the primary scheduled for July 19. Her trial is slated to begin in September.

Most of information in the unsealed letters previously was reported in The Sun — the most revelatory being that prosecutors possess recorded phone calls between Mosby and Nationwide, the company that manages retirement accounts for Baltimore employees. Mosby’s perjury charges stem from her making early withdrawals from her city retirement savings account under the guise of having suffered financial hardship because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to her indictment.

Before Congress passed the CARES Act, state and city employees could not access their retirement accounts before retiring unless they stopped working for the government or experienced an “unforeseeable emergency.” Prosecutors say Mosby used that money to buy the pair of Florida vacation homes.

The letters also show Bolden has a recorded interview between investigators and City Council President Nick Mosby, Marilyn’s husband, who is not charged with a crime. No details of that conversations were disclosed.

The news outlets filed a motion to intervene in the case because of the belief courts are meant to be open to the public, and that Mosby’s high profile and pending reelection meant an increased public scrutiny of the case.

“It is difficult to conceive of many cases in this area with a greater public interest in transparency than this one,” attorneys for the news outlets wrote. “This is a highly public criminal trial assessing the potential fraud and perjury of not merely a political figure, but the chief law enforcement official for the City of Baltimore.”

Griggsby’s decision to keep certain documents sealed is to ensure Mosby’s right to a fair trial is not harmed.

“The Court also specifically finds in this case that there is a substantial probability that the Defendant’s interest in a fair trial as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment would be harmed if the document at issue and the materials referenced therein were to be made public at this time,” Griggsby wrote.