Days after she was indicted on federal perjury charges, Baltimore’s top prosecutor made an extraordinary appearance in church Sunday — begging for “prayers” to help in the “fight” of her life.
State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, 41, read a nearly five-minute address from her cellphone to the congregation of Empowerment Temple AME church as congregants formed a prayer circle around her, livestreamed video of the service shows.
“We can certainly use your prayers,” Mosby said as she stood alongside her husband, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby.
“As a family, we are in the fight of our lives,” she said.
Mosby was brought up to the front by the Rev. Robert Turner, who prayed for the Lord to “bring real justice” and “protect” Mosby from “those that seek to kill her and destroy her.”
“I want us to bless this sister,” he said, even offering to financially support the embattled prosecutor, who was indicted Thursday on federal charges of perjury and filing false mortgage applications.
He told the service that Mosby did not know he was bringing her upfront, although she proceeded to read her entire statement from a cellphone.
Mosby was applauded in church as she repeated her earlier statement that “without equivocation, I am innocent of the charges levied against me.”
“I have done nothing wrong, and I’m confident that I’ll be exonerated and my name will be cleared,” she said.
“Despite the death threats, the hate mail, the constant media attacks, the lawsuits, the scrutiny of every dollar in my bank account — I’m still here. I’m still standing. And I’m still blessed,” she said and vowed that she would “continue to fight.
“I love this city. I love the people of this city. And I will never stop fighting for each and every one of you,” she read.
During her prayer-circle address, Mosby told the pastor that she was unable to accept his offer of financial help, which he trumpeted as proof of her “integrity.”
Mosby, elected state’s attorney in 2015, is accused of falsely claiming twice to have suffered a work-related financial hardship from COVID-19 in order to request two early withdrawals totaling $90,000 from her city employee retirement account.
Prosecutors said Mosby used the money she received — $36,000 in May 2020 and $45,000 on Dec. 31 of that year — toward down payments on vacation homes in Kissimmee and Long Boat Key.
The two counts of perjury stem from Mosby’s allegedly false statements of coronavirus-related financial duress at a time when she was earning a gross annual salary of nearly $248,000 in full, the indictment asserts.
She is also charged with two counts of making false statements on mortgage applications seeking a total of more than $900,000 in loans to buy the Florida properties. The indictment says Mosby failed to disclose federal tax delinquencies resulting in a $45,000 lien imposed by the Internal Revenue Service in 2020.
The prosecutor has denied all the allegations, claiming she was the victim of a “ploy” by political adversaries seeking to unseat her and was determined to “fight with every ounce in my being and to clear my name.”
With Post wires
