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Catherine Pugh released from federal prison to residential reentry office

Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in 2020.
Julio Cortez/AP
Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in 2020.

Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh has been released from federal prison, about two years into her three year sentence, prison records show. The Federal Bureau of Prisons will now supervise Pugh from a local Residential Reentry Management office, which oversees felons living in halfway homes.

Pugh was sentenced to three years in prison in February 2020 for using fraudulent “Healthy Holly” children’s book sales to funnel illegal straw donations to her campaign and evade taxes.

The former mayor reported to the Aliceville Federal Correctional Institution, a low security facility in Alabama, in June 2020.

The 71-year-old’s attorneys asked President Trump to commute Pugh’s sentence on his final day in office. The request was denied.

Pugh’s attorney Steven Silverman declined to comment on the transfer.

The CARES Act allows prisons to release certain inmates early, based on factors including age, health and remaining sentence length, to reduce prison populations amid the pandemic.

Emily Sullivan is a city hall reporter at WYPR, where she covers all things Baltimore politics. She joined WYPR after reporting for NPR’s national airwaves. There, she was a reporter for NPR’s news desk, business desk and presidential conflicts of interest team. Sullivan won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for an investigation into a Trump golf course's finances alongside members of the Embedded team. She has also won awards from the Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her use of sound and feature stories. She has provided news analysis on 1A, The Takeaway, Here & Now and All Things Considered.