Disgraced former Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby seeks pardon as sentencing date looms

Baltimore's former top prosecutor is set for sentencing on mortgage fraud and perjury convictions this week, and she is currently working hard to secure a pardon from the Biden White House.

Marilyn Mosby is seeking clemency from the president in a bid to avoid prison time, as Fox News reports, going so far as to suggest that she has been the victim of a politically motivated prosecution.

Last-ditch effort

With federal prosecutors asking that Mosby receive at least 20 months in prison for crimes that could theoretically yield 40 years' incarceration, the former state's attorney has initiated her pardon request.

Mosby's plea has attracted support from the Congressional Black Caucus, with its members recently submitting a letter to the Biden White House in furtherance of her desire for clemency.

Caucus char Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) declared, “As a nation that leads by example, our justice system must not be weaponized to prevent progress toward a more perfect union” in an apparent endorsement of Mosby's claims of political persecution.

However, Mosby was found guilty in two separate trials of two counts of perjury related to claims of financial hardship during the pandemic and also of one count of mortgage fraud related to false representations on loan applications submitted in furtherance of the purchase of two Florida vacation properties.

Mosby has made the rounds of friendly media outlets in recent weeks, lamenting what she feels is the injustice of her situation, telling MSNBC, “I know that I have done absolutely nothing wrong, nothing criminal, nothing to be separated from my children for 40 years... .”

Feds stand firm

Despite her claims of innocence and unfair targeting, which she says was orchestrated by the Trump adminstration Justice Department, federal prosecutors have opined that Mosby is more than deserving of time behind bars.

As CBS News reports, federal prosecutors have remarked on Mosby's lack of “respect” and her unwillingness to accept responsibility for her actions.

“Mosby has repreatedly 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 asserted in court documents.

In response, her attorneys have said that their client has simply been exercising her “First Amendment right to state her opinion on the prosecution and the case” and to “proclaim her innocence and protest to prosecution.”

Just how much damage that stance may do to her hopes of receiving a lighter sentence than the one prosecutors are seeking -- or indeed the presidential pardon she so desperately seeks -- only time will tell.