Feds investigate Marilyn and Nick Mosby

Marilyn and Nick Mosby are Baltimore’s leading power couple. She is the State’s Attorney in Baltimore — the one who indicted but failed to convict half a dozen police officers in the Freddy Gray matter. He’s the City Council President.

Together, they are now the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. The Washington Post reports:

The U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI requested a range of financial records related to the power couple: tax returns, bank statements, credit card statements, loan documents and canceled checks. They subpoenaed Mosby’s campaign treasurer and requested records tracing back to 2014, some related to the Mosbys’ private travel and consulting businesses.

In addition, Union Baptist Church received a federal grand jury subpoena seeking information about whether Nick Mosby had made contributions there, the church’s attorney, Robert Dashiell, confirmed. The pastor of another major church, Bethel AME, also said he received a subpoena, though the Rev. Patrick Clayborn said he did not know details of what it was seeking. . . .

Of the subpoena sent to Union Baptist Church, Dashiell said he reviewed its records and found that Nick Mosby had made a negligible donation. “I spend more at Starbucks,” Dashiell said.

As I discussed here, last year the IRS found that the Mosby couple failed for three years to pay a significant amount of the federal income tax they owe. After multiple attempts to obtain payment, the IRS placed a tax lien for nearly $50,000 against them.

In addition, Marilyn Mosby has been embroiled in a dispute with the city’s inspector general. According to the Post:

Mosby faced growing questions last summer about her trips abroad to criminal justice conferences and her private travel businesses. . .Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming [found that] Mosby spent 144 days away in 2018 and 2019. . .Cumming faulted Mosby for not requesting approval from the city’s spending panel for more than a dozen trips in 2018 and 2019.

Kenya, Scotland and Portugal were among her destination. Considering Marilyn Mosby’s record, the city is probably better off when she’s far away.

Attorneys for the couple responded to news of the investigation with this:

My clients are progressive change agents, making them unfair targets of unnecessary scrutiny by federal investigators. Nevertheless, I can assure you and the people of Baltimore, they have done nothing illegal, inappropriate or unlawful.

It may be worth noting that the Inspector General with whom Marilyn Mosby has been “embroiled” is the first woman and first Latina to serve in that role. She may consider herself a “progressive change agent.” So too, I suspect, does the minister who found scant evidence of contributions by Nick Mosby to his church.

I would also note that the “progressive” changes Marilyn and Nick Mosby promote have helped turn Baltimore into a much more violent, much less safe city.

This doesn’t mean they are crooks. But they aren’t exempt from scrutiny just because they are leftists.

It seems beyond dispute that the couple hasn’t paid taxes they owe. And it’s clear they can afford to. Marilyn Mosby has purchased nearly $1 million in Florida property.

As for any other violations of the law, we should withhold judgment until the criminal law process runs its course.

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