BALTIMORE — The federal trial for Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby won’t happen until next year in March, Judge Lydia K. Grigsby said Thursday.
The judge on Wednesday ordered the postponement of Mosby’s trial after a dispute over expert witness testimony. Now, the trial is set for March 27.
Prosecutors are seeking a gag order on her attorneys, a day after Mosby’s counsel spoke to WJZ on the steps of the District Court.
U.S. Attorney Erek Barron proposes Judge Lydia K. Grigsby order the counsel to refrain from making any statements to the media that could “pose a likelihood of material prejudice” or influence any juror or potential juror.
“The ends of justice are ill-served by counsel’s press conferences on the courthouse steps launching inflammatory rhetoric that the government’s arguments are ‘bull—-‘ and warnings to state and federal employees that they are ‘at risk because of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the City of Baltimore,'” Barron said in his filing. “Such statements only have one goal: to taint the jury pool.”
Marilyn Mosby’s lead attorney A. Scott Bolden voiced his displeasure Wednesday when WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren asked for his reaction to the decision to delay the trial.
“Now on the eve of trial, if not further persecution of Marilyn Mosby as a public official, they throw gasoline on an already troublesome prosecution, a prosecution of that is unprecedented where she is being charged with allegedly stealing her own money, allegedly lying to herself,” Bolden said.
Mosby is accused of committing perjury to illegally obtain a withdrawal from her retirement account. The government argues she lied on forms saying she had adversely been impacted by COVID-19 allowing her to take out money without penalty while she continued to work and earn a salary of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Mosby used the money she withdrew from her retirement fund to buy two vacation homes in Florida. Prosecutors allege she also lied on mortgage applications.
When the trial does begin, it is expected to last three weeks.
Bolden told the judge Wednesday that Mosby’s “life is at stake” and he believed she was being “persecuted” by the federal government.
Bolden also told the judge he believes this case is why she lost her bid for re-election. She is expected to leave office in January.