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A federal grand jury in Baltimore issued a superseding indictment against Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby (D) on Thursday, adding new details about false statements on a mortgage application for a second vacation home in Florida.
The new indictment includes details of money-shifting between Mosby and her husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick J. Mosby (D).
According to federal prosecutors, Marilyn Mosby submitted a false gift letter with the application for a $428,400 mortgage for a condominium in Long Boat Key, Fla.
In order to close on the home, which was in her name, Marilyn Mosby needed $35,699.15 in liquid assets, but only had $31,043.24, according to the indictment.
To make up for the shortfall, Marilyn Mosby submitted a letter that claimed Nick Mosby had made her a gift of $5,000 to be transferred at the closing date from his Municipal Employees Credit Union account.
However, prosecutors contend, that account did not have $5,000 in it, and Marilyn Mosby transferred the money from another account into her husband’s before the closing date.
The timeline is critical because the “false gift letter” allowed Marilyn Mosby “to lock in a lower interest rate than she would have received if she waited until her next paycheck was deposited into her checking account,” the indictment says.
Marilyn Mosby had already been charged with making false statements related to the mortgage application for the Long Boat Key residence, a felony charge that carries a maximum penalty of up to a $1 million fine and 30 years in prison. It is one of four charges to which Marilyn Mosby has pleaded not guilty and pledged to fight in court.
In January she was charged with two counts of perjury for the two separate withdrawals from the retirement account citing coronavirus-related hardships and two counts of making a false statement on a mortgage loan application for two vacation homes in Florida.
In addition to the details of the gift letter, prosecutors said Thursday that Mosby also falsely stated in a letter related to the Long Boat Key mortgage that she had been living in a Kissimmee, Fla., vacation home with her family for the past 70 days, when she had not.
In the original indictment, prosecutors said Mosby falsely represented the Kissimmee property as a second home, although she planned to rent it out to others. She is also charged with failing to disclose federal tax liens pending against her at the time she signed the mortgage applications.
As part of Mosby’s defense, she has said she was unaware of the liens and therefore couldn’t have lied on the paperwork. She has also called the case against her a political witch hunt, which is proven, her attorneys say, by donations of $100 each to her two primary opponents in 2018 by Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Wise, who is leading the case against her.
One of her attorneys, A. Scott Bolden, issued a statement Thursday evening:
“This superseding indictment, with no additional charges, again proves the obsession, the political and personal ill will and animus of this particular prosecutor, who has not only donated to Marilyn Mosby’s political opponents, but has has violated DOJ ethical standards to publicly shame my client three months from her election. The government is literally [scraping] ‘the bottom of the barrel’ when federal dollars are being spent to investigate money transferred between a husband and wife. It is shameful conduct and DOJ should be reigning in this vindictive prosecutor, prior to any indictment, and now, while we are awaiting trial.”
Mosby’s legal team has pressed for a quick trial before her June 28 primary. Attorney Ivan Bates has filed to run against her in the Democratic primary; Roya M. Hanna had also launched a campaign for the Democratic primary but has since announced she will run as an independent in November.
Nick Mosby did not immediately respond to a voicemail Thursday evening.
He has not been accused of wrongdoing.
The office of United States Attorney Erek L. Barron declined to comment.
A trial in the case is scheduled to begin May 2.
