A federal judge on Friday approved a renewed request from former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to move her federal perjury and mortgage fraud trial to Greenbelt.

Mosby, 43, who served two terms in office from 2015-2023, is charged with two counts of perjury and making false statements on a loan application. Federal prosecutors allege that she lied about experiencing adverse financial consequences to withdraw money early from her retirement account under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act — or CARES Act — and made false statements on paperwork related to the purchase of two properties in Florida.

In court documents, Federal Public Defender James Wyda, Assistant Federal Public Defender Maggie Grace and Lucius Outlaw, Mosby’s attorneys, wrote that their client has been a “lightning rod” for almost a decade in Baltimore.

Her tenure, they said, was controversial from the beginning. They said their client experienced a “steady drip” and “sometimes a deluge” of media criticism. And the government, they said, is now prosecuting her “wielding a novel theory of perjury that has never been pursued in a single other case.”

“It wants to try her before a Baltimore jury, in a city that has been bombarded with negative press coverage of her for years,” they said. “Mrs. Mosby cannot receive a fair trial under these conditions.”

They want to move the case from the Northern Division to the Southern Division of the District of Maryland.

The story continues at the Baltimore Banner: Judge grants motion to move ex-Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s fraud trial

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