Pro-BLM former Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby found guilty of mortgage fraud

On Tuesday, a federal jury found former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby guilty of one count of mortgage fraud and not guilty on a second count.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the verdict comes around three months after another federal jury convicted Mosby of perjury in November. In that case, Mosby claimed that she had suffered hardship due to the Covid pandemic, allowing her to withdraw $80,000 from her city retirement fund.

That money was used to close on two properties in Florida worth around $1 million combined. One was an eight-bedroom house near Disney World, while the other was a beachfront condo on the Gulf Coast.

The trial focused mostly on the former state’s attorney’s failure to disclose a federal tax debt, but the verdict was for a "gift letter" Mosby wrote that claimed Nick Mosby had given her enough money to close on the condo.

Prosecutors said the letter said Nick Mosby would transfer her $5,000 at closing, because she was $4,600 short on her down payment that was required in the February 2021 closing. The indictment said that the payment did not come from her ex-husband, but rather through a series of transfers that investigators had traced back to her checking account.

Experts said that Mosby likely resorted to writing the letter as lenders usually look at a person’s account balance once during the closing process to determine interest rates.

Prosecutors had to prove that Mosby knowingly made false statements on her application and that her lies influenced financial institutions to loan her money. The indictment listed seven false statements.

Mosby’s lawyers said that their client did not intentionally lie. Mosby said she didn’t read everything in the "great pile of documents" on the closing table, and testified that she didn’t remember a second home rider that certified Mosby would "maintain exclusive control" over the property. A week before closing, Mosby ratified a contract giving control of the property to a management company to rent out.

Prosecutors also said the application provided several opportunities to disclose the federal tax debt that reached around $70,000. She testified knowing that the Mosbys had a tax liability when she applied, but later said she didn't think she had to list the debt because she thought her then-husband had entered into an installment agreement with the IRS.

Mosby lost her reelection in 2022 after being indicted by a federal grand jury.

In 2020, as riots spread across the nation in response to the death of George Floyd, Mosby penned an op-ed alongside Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner titled "Mr. President, stay out of our cities."

"If President Trump sends militarized federal agents to Baltimore City to attack our citizens by making illegal arrests, kidnapping people, assaulting them, or committing any other crime, they will be prosecuted by my office," the op-ed stated. Trump sent federal agents into Portland, Oregon, which saw months of nightly riots, and vowed to send them to additional cities to curb the violent riots.