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Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is set to stand trial this week in federal court on two counts of making a false statement on a loan application.
Jury selection was supposed to start on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, but it will now begin on Wednesday because of the snow. It’s the second time that she’s standing trial in less than six months.
Mosby, 43, a Democrat who served as the city’s top prosecutor from 2015-2023 and rose to national prominence after she charged six Baltimore Police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, was found guilty on Nov. 9 of two counts of perjury.
In 2020, Mosby twice lied on a form that she had experienced adverse financial consequences to take advantage of a provision in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to withdraw $90,000 that she otherwise would not have been able to access from a retirement account. She used that money to buy a home in Kissimmee, Florida, as well as a condominium in Longboat Key, Florida.
Here’s what you need to know:
Read more coverage about former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby
What are the allegations against former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby?
The superseding indictment outlines the allegations in the case:
In 2020, Mosby signed an application for a $490,500 mortgage with Cardinal Financial Company LP to buy the home in Kissimmee, Florida, which is not far from Walt Disney World. But she did not disclose that she owed “significant amounts” of federal taxes for 2014 and 2015, and that the Internal Revenue Service had placed a $45,022 tax lien against her and her husband at the time, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby. They’ve since divorced.
One week before she closed on the house, Marilyn Mosby inked a contract with Executive Villas Florida, a vacation home management company in Davenport, Florida. As part of the mortgage application, though, she signed a document stating that she would maintain “exclusive control” over the property for at least one year. That allowed her to obtain a lower interest rate and make a smaller down payment.
Later, Marilyn Mosby sent a letter to her mortgage broker in which she wrote that she and her family had spent the last 70 days living at the house. But that wasn’t true. He sent it to the lender.
In 2021, Marilyn Mosby signed an application for a $428,400 mortgage with United Wholesale Mortgage for the condo in Longboat Key, Florida, and again did not disclose that she owed federal taxes as well as the existence of the tax lien.
She did not have enough money to close on the condo. Instead of waiting for her next paycheck, Marilyn Mosby submitted a letter to the mortgage company that claimed that her husband had gifted her $5,000 that he’d transfer at closing.
But bank records show that Marilyn Mosby later wired $5,000 to her husband who then sent the money to an escrow agent. She was able to lock in a lower interest rate than if she had waited for her next paycheck.
Marilyn Mosby has pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintains her innocence. Each count of making a false statement on a loan application carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Will Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby testify?
It’s unclear. Nick Mosby’s director of communications, Brandon Stoneburg, could not be reached.
Federal Public Defender James Wyda and Assistant Federal Defenders Cullen Macbeth, Maggie Grace and Sedira Banan, Marilyn Mosby’s attorneys, sought to introduce several out-of-court statements at trial, including some of the following comments:
In 2020, a local commercial banker told investigators that Nick Mosby unsuccessfully tried to take out a loan to pay off the tax lien.
When the banker asked him why his wife was not co-signing for the loan, Nick Mosby responded, “It’s my obligation. I want to take care of it.”
He was able to get a loan in 2021 with her help. The banker reported that Marilyn Mosby told him that she did not get involved earlier because the tax lien was “Nick’s issue.”
Meanwhile, her mortgage broker told investigators that he had been unaware of the tax lien. He stated that Marilyn Mosby called him and was “livid” and thought that her husband “took care of it because it was his deal to clear it.”
But Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron Zelinsky and Sean Delaney contended that the statements were hearsay and should not be admitted at trial.
“The Defendant may take the stand and testify that she did not know about the tax lien and debt. She may call Mr. Mosby to testify that he lied to her about having settled the debt by the time she filed her false applications,” Zelinsky and Delaney wrote in court documents. “But she cannot avoid calling witnesses by admitting hearsay evidence.”
U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby sided with federal prosecutors and ruled that most out-of-court statements could not be introduced at trial.
What’s happening with the perjury convictions?
Griggsby will hold sentencing after the second trial is over.
Marilyn Mosby already faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count of perjury, but people often receive punishments that are much lower.
Meanwhile, the Maryland Office of Bar Counsel has moved to suspend her law license.
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Dylan Segelbaum is the courts reporter at The Baltimore Banner.
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