Fox News Flash top headlines for August 3
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.
The US Attorney for the District of Maryland, who is prosecuting Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby on counts of perjury and making false mortgage applications to purchase two vacation homes, detailed Mosby's finances and hit back at the embattled prosecutor's attempt to strike the word "hardship" from proceedings.
Mosby pleaded not guilty earlier this year to the four-count indictment, which alleges that she claimed "adverse financial consequences" related to the COVID-19 pandemic to withdraw $90,000 from her city retirement account, then used the funds to place down payments on two vacation homes in Florida.
While Mosby claimed adverse consequences to withdraw from her retirement account, her salary as state's attorney increased from $141,450 in 2019 to $151,268 in 2020. She also received more than $10,000 in additional "miscellaneous" compensation in 2020, according to the court filings.
Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby addresses the media outside her office on a day after her indictment on federal perjury charges. (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun via AP, File)
Despite receiving her full salary, prosecutors allege that Mosby "exploited" provisions in the CARES Act to withdraw from her retirement accounts early, including $40,000 in May 2020 and an additional $50,000 in December 2020.
"Simply put, [Mosby's] perjury allowed her to leverage $90,000 in funds she should not have had access to in order to buy two vacation properties," prosecutors wrote in a filing on Friday.
BALTIMORE PROSECUTOR MARILYN MOSBY FACES STAFFING CRISIS AMID CRIMINAL CHARGES
The government further charges that Mosby "did not disclose that she owed significant amounts of federal taxes" on the two mortgage applications. The IRS filed a $45,022 tax lien against her in March 2020, according to the filings.
Marilyn Mosby takes part in a panel discussion. (Jerod Harris/Getty Images for BET)
Attorneys for Mosby, meanwhile, reiterated previous claims that the federal prosecutors are biased against Mosby.
"As noted in State’s Attorney Mosby’s first motion to dismiss the indictment, members of the prosecution team have historically been biased against her, and there is a strong likelihood that the breadth and scope of the government’s past investigations—and the animus that fueled them— will come through in its own presentation of evidence," her attorneys wrote.
Mosby is also seeking to strike the term "hardship" from the case, but prosecutors argued in filings last week that the "use of the term is neither inflammatory nor prejudicial."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Mosby's attorneys did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the US Attorney's Office declined to comment and deferred to court filings in the case.
Mosby lost her reelection bid last month to Ivan Bates, who served as a prosecutor in Baltimore from 1996 to 2002 before becoming a defense attorney.
