A former top prosecutor is awaiting sentencing on perjury and mortgage fraud convictions, and she is currently attempting to secure clemency from President Joe Biden.
Marilyn Mosby, once the state's attorney in Baltimore, Maryland, is seeking a pardon in order to avoid likely prison time, as Fox News reports, suggesting she is the victim of political persecution, despite the fact that similar arguments raised by former President Donald Trump generally fall on deaf ears among her Democrat Party colleagues.
Ahead of a sentencing date at which prosecutors will request that she receive at least 20 months' incarceration but faces the theoretical possibility of 40 years in prison, Mosby has initiated a request for a presidential pardon.
Mosby's efforts have garnered the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus, and its members have since submitted a letter to the White House in her support.
Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), caucus chair, has taken up Mosby's cause, writing, “As a national that leads by example, our justice system must not be weaponized to prevent progress toward a more perfect union.”
Mosby has attempted to make the case herself in the court of public opinion, recently appearing on MSNBC to argue why a pardon in her case would be appropriate. “I know that I have done absolutely nothing wrong, nothing criminal, nothing to be separated from my children for 40 years as a result of withdrawing $90,000 of my own money. It makes absolutely no sense.”
During an appearance on The Breakfast Club radio program, Mosby blamed the Trump Justice Department for her predicament and for “malicious prosecution,” saying, “This is all related to this prior administration. Who has the power now to do something about that is this administration.”
The former prosecutor's characterization of her convictions, however, is clearly at odds with what a jury decided last November as well as in February.
Last year, she was convicted on two counts of perjury related to her assertion of financial hardship during the pandemic, which allowed her to prematurely withdraw funds from her retirement accounts.
She was also convicted on one count of mortgage fraud related to false statements made on loan applications that facilitated her purchase of a pair of vacation properties in Florida.
Despite federal prosecutors' demands that she serve at least 20 months in prison, Mosby has requested that she receive probation only, or, in the alternative, she is hoping to obtain the aforementioned pardon.
Federal prosecutors have remained firm on their position that Mosby deserves time behind bars, as CBS News reports, noting that she has demonstrated a lack of “respect” and “accepts no responsibility” for her actions.
“Mosby has repeatedly and publicly demonstrated that she accepts no responsibility for her actions, has no respect for this court's rulings and lacks honesty with the public and candor before this court,” the DOJ said in a filing.
Lawyers for the soon-to-be-sentenced former state's attorney have declared, however, “Ms. Mosby has a First Amendment right to state her opinion on the prosecution and the case...She has a continuing constitutional right to proclaim her innocence and protest to prosecution,” a concept that most Democrats have curiously and routinely denied applies to former President Trump.
