Marilyn Mosby says federal prosecutors targeted her, gets NAACP support in push for pardon

BALTIMORE -- As former Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's sentencing hearing approaches, the NAACP and more than a dozen other organizations sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday, urging him to pardon her. 

Juries in two trials ultimately found Mosby, 44, guilty of lies related to a vacation home mortgage and COVID-related hardship withdrawals from her retirement account. 

She is scheduled to be sentenced on May 23, faces up to 40 years in federal prison  

WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren reports the NAACP is one of 15 civil rights organizations demanding the president pardon Mosby.    

In the five-page letter, the human rights group detailed how it believes Mosby was unfairly targeted and unjustly convicted for perjury and mortgage fraud.

The organizations claim she was targeted by the federal government as payback for her progressive policies and the prosecution of officers after the death of Freddie Gray almost a decade ago.

While many defendants are apologetic and remorseful ahead of their federal sentencing date, Mosby is anything but. 

"I've been accused of doing something that I have not done. I'm innocent. I'm facing 40 years for withdrawing funds from my retirement savings. The United States government, a global superpower, is actually coming for me," Mosby said Wednesday morning on the nationally syndicated "The Breakfast Club" where she personally called for a presidential pardon. 

"This is all related to this prior administration. Who has the power now to do something about that is this administration," Mosby said.

"The words over the Supreme Court say equal justice under law, and what we have in the prosecution of Marilyn Mosby is selective prosecution," said Patrice Willoughby, the NAACP's Senior Vice President of Global Policy and Impact.

Hellgren asked Willoughby if she was hoping for a quick response from Biden. 

"We're hoping for a very quick response because justice delayed is justice denied," she said.   

Justice Department accused of malicious prosecution

The letter accuses the Department of Justice, under former President Donald Trump, of pursuing a "meritless indictment" against Mosby and suggests that the current administration has ignored political motives behind what they call a "malicious prosecution."

"We expect that political persecutions and malicious prosecutions pursued during the Trump Administration would not continue in the Biden Administration," the letter started, emphasizing Mosby's progressive prosecution approach. 

Mosby was convicted of enduring financial hardships related to COVID-19 to withdraw money without penalty from her retirement account and that she falsified information on loan applications for two Florida properties.

The former prosecutor's defense maintained the trial was "politically motivated."    

"The only thing Marilyn Mosby is guilty of is the desire to provide her family with a better life," NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson stated upon the release of the letter. "The sad reality is, as Black women take their rightful places in positions of power, dark forces seek to tear down both their progress, and that of our community."

White House responds 

Asked about the letter during a recent briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she couldn't comment on the president's thoughts as she hadn't spoken to him about it.

"I want to be really mindful here because that is obviously a Department of Justice process and I don't want to be certainly be speaking to any individual pardon request, that is not something I can do," she said. "[The Department of Justice] employs a process that is thorough and deliberative when it comes to a process to review executive clemency petitions."

Mosby's campaign for a pardon

The letter is the latest development in a broader public campaign advocating for Mosby's pardon. So far, a website has been created and a petition has garnered over 16,000 signatures to date.

In an appearance on MSNBC last week, Mosby said she did nothing wrong and asked for a presidential pardon. 

"I think that is appropriate," Mosby said. "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."