Marilyn Mosby not among those pardoned by Biden in final hours of his presidency

Alex Mann, The Baltimore Sun on Jan 20, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

BALTIMORE — Dr. Anthony Fauci. Retired Gen. Mark Milley. Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney.

These public figures, along with several of his relatives, were among those former President Joe Biden pardoned in the final hours before the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Absent from that list was former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, whose supporters had called on Biden to exonerate her before he left office.

Most of the people Biden pardoned Monday on his way out of the White House had not been convicted of or accused of any crimes, nor were they under investigation. Biden, a Democrat, said he was taking such action for some because he feared the possibility of “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions” under the incoming Republican administration.

Roger Hartley, dean of the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore, said presidents tend to pardon people for personal or political reasons or sometimes just “to make a point.”

“It may be truly that Marilyn Mosby’s issues with the law didn’t rise to the level of presidential consideration, either for political reasons or to undue a miscarriage of justice,” Hartley told The Baltimore Sun on Monday. “It may be that her conviction would be thought of as small potatoes in comparison to some of the issues he was trying to make headway on, such as shielding people from political prosecution.”

Mosby did not respond to a request for comment Monday. National civil rights attorney Ben Crump, one of the figures at the forefront of Mosby’s push for a pardon, also did not respond.

After Biden on Dec. 1 pardoned his son Hunter, who had been convicted of federal gun and tax crimes, Crump and other Mosby supporters urged Biden to do the same for those, like Mosby, who they believed to have been “wrongfully convicted.”

“Marilyn Mosby is on house arrest right now with her law license hanging in the balance over purchasing property with her own money,” Crump and political strategist Angela Rye said in a statement at the time. “We welcome a conversation with President Biden to discuss ways to use his pardon power to free those ‘others’ who deserve justice also.”

Mosby, 44, is about eight months into her sentence of one year of home detention for federal convictions of perjury and mortgage fraud. Separate juries found her guilty of those offenses, and a judge added three years of supervised release to her punishment.

Jurors found that Mosby lied about suffering financial hardship because of the coronavirus pandemic to make herself eligible for about $80,000 in early withdrawals from her city retirement account, which she used to close on a pair of vacation homes in Florida worth almost $1 million combined.

The government said Mosby did not experience reduced work hours, business losses or anything else that would have qualified her for early retirement withdrawals under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, Congress’ first pandemic relief package.

Mosby has appealed her convictions to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, describing them as the result of a politically motivated and legally tainted prosecution. Oral arguments are scheduled for Jan. 31.

Defense lawyers described Mosby’s prosecution for withdrawing money from her retirement account as unprecedented, and prosecutors have conceded her case was unique. However, the Justice Department under Biden prioritized prosecuting people who it alleged to have taken advantage of the federal government’s sweeping coronavirus relief efforts.

The Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Mosby, has won convictions against a range of other defendants who made money by fraudulently applying for coronavirus relief.

_____