BALTIMORE — Lawyers defending Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby against federal perjury allegations are asking a judge to toss the charges and remove the lead prosecutor from the case.
Federal prosecutors allege that Mosby twice lied in 2020 when she claimed COVID-19 related financial hardships, in order to withdraw a combined $90,000 from her City Deferred Compensation Plan.
Mosby then bought two homes in Floridafor a combined $918,900.
While buying those homes prosecutors say she also failed on the mortgage applications to disclose over $45,022 of debt she owed to the IRS at the time.
Mosby's attorney A. Scott Bolden filed three motions in court on February 18.
In one Bolden accuses prosecutors of preventing Mosby from testifying during grand jury proceedings, which he says resulted in the exclusion of exculpatory evidence that could have potentially cleared her of wrongdoing.
Bolden in court filings continued his attacks on lead prosecutor Leo Wise, claiming he had a score to settle with Mosby.
He accuses Wise of blaming Mosby's office on leaks at a time federal prosecutors were investigating the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force.
Bolden also mentions small contributions Wise previously made to the campaigns of candidates running against Mosby.
He also sheds light on Wise's pursuit of a criminal tax evasion investigation against Mosby, which ultimately led to no additional charges.
Additionally, Bolden goes after newly appointed U.S. Attorney Erek Barron, claiming he too has animus towards Mosby including a time in which he apparently questioned marital infidelities.
As for the overall criminal case, Bolden argues that federal prosecutors didn't provide enough information in the indictment to allow he and Mosby to properly prepare their defense.
He opines that prosecutors gave no valid reason as to why Mosby did not qualify to make the withdrawal.
Under the law in which Mosby withdrew the money, hardship could have included being “quarantined; furloughed or laid off; having reduced work hours; being unable to work due to lack of childcare; or the closing or reduction of hours of a business she owned and operated.”
At the time Mosby withdrew the money for alleged hardship, she was earning a full gross salary of nearly a quarter-million dollars, which breaks down to $9,183.54 every two-weeks. In fact, charging documents said Mosby had received a more than $9,000 raise from 2019 to 2020.
As for Mosby's private businesses, Bolden suggested last month that they were negatively impacted by the pandemic, but never said how or why.
RELATED: Marilyn Mosby's lawyer indicates her personal businesses were impacted by COVID
Last year, attorneys David Shuster and Andrew Jay Graham, who represented Mosby when her businesses were being scrutinized by the Baltimore City Inspector General said the companies were not even operational.
Bolden also contends that Mosby had no knowledge of an existing tax lien against her at the time she signed the mortgage applications.
Court documents filed by Mosby's defense team say she and her husband, City Council President Nick Mosby, filed 2019 taxes separately.
Even so, charging documents show the IRS sent mailings in November 2015 and 2016 to Mosby's home notifying her of the debts. From 2017 to 2019, the IRS sent three more letters to Mosby's home advising that her tax returns for each of those years would be withheld and instead go towards her unpaid debts.
The third dispute raised by Bolden is whether or not the government could prove Mosby's intention to rent out one of the Florida homes, as opposed to making it her legal second residence.
The feds say that was illegal, because she had already signed paperwork before that with a home management company giving them control over the rental of the property.
Mosby has another federal court appearance on Wednesday at 11 a.m.
Bolden is looking for a speedy trial due to reelection being just months away.
