As you may recall, former Baltimore State's Attorney (and the former wife of the current Baltimore City Council President) Marilyn Mosby was convicted of mortgage fraud and perjury recently. She wound up getting off with a fairly light sentence despite being a convicted public official, getting nothing worse than a period of house detention and probation. But even that gentle treatment was clearly too much for her ego to bear. She was back in court this week, this time demanding that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals throw out her convictions entirely. She also asked to be allowed to keep one of her Florida vacation condos (purchased in part through the mortgage fraud mentioned above), despite the government's plans to seize and liquidate it. So what reason does she offer as to why the convictions should be dismissed? Your guess is probably as good as mine because it simply doesn't make any sense. (Baltimore Sun)

Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby wants a federal appeals court to throw out her convictions on mortgage fraud and perjury charges, which she claims in a new court filing were the result of a prosecution that was “ill-advised and ill-conceived from the beginning.”

In her first brief submitted to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Mosby asked the judges to find that a series of flaws in her two trials made the convictions legally unsound. She also wants to keep her vacation condo on Florida’s Gulf Coast despite the government’s efforts to seize the property.

The brief suggests Mosby was unfairly targeted for investigation — though it does not allege she was the victim of a politically or racially motivated prosecution, arguments that the judge handling her trials rejected repeatedly during the two years her case passed through Maryland’s federal courts.

Traditionally, if someone is convicted of a crime and they wish to appeal the conviction, they show up with a plausible explanation as to why the convictions were flawed. To be sure, Mosby has the same right to the appeals process as anyone else, but she doesn't even seem to be claiming that the convictions were in error. For that matter, her attorneys don't explicitly claim that she didn't commit the crimes she was accused of.

Instead, Mosby describes how the prosecution of her case was "ill-advised and ill-conceived" from the start. One might argue that fraudulently exploiting COVID relief money to buy luxury vacation homes and then lying about it was "ill-advised," but maybe that's just me. The filing also claims that Mosby was "unfairly targeted for investigation." But how so? She's not saying that her prosecution was racially or politically motivated. (She tried that during the trial and was laughably shot down each time.) So if she's not claiming she didn't commit the crimes and she's not claiming the prosecution was biased against her, then... what? Was it "unfair" for prosecutors to notice what she was doing?

Keep in mind that the way Mosby inappropriately accessed the COVID relief funds was by claiming that she suffered "an adverse impact" as a result of the pandemic. She claimed that a travel agency she was starting up was harmed by the shutdowns. But the prosecution produced documents showing that she never started the company in more than name. It only existed on paper and had no clients and no employees. Yet she claimed $80,000 over it and then lied about it in court while under oath. I assume we're supposed to find it "unfair" for the prosecution to notice that as well.

In reality, the crimes committed by Marilyn Mosby weren't really all that serious or vile. Other Baltimore politicians have been caught doing far worse many times in the past. But these crimes should be treated more seriously than those committed by run-of-the-mill petty criminals because Mosby was in a highly placed position of public trust, responsible for the equal application of the laws for all. She was already let off with a shockingly light sentence. Asking for additional special treatment at this point is simply insulting.