A jury decided the fate of Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s former top prosecutor, last week. In her second federal criminal case in recent months, the jury convicted Mosby of one count of mortgage fraud for making false statements to multiple mortgage lending companies as she purchased two properties in Florida. They acquitted her on another count.
Already convicted on two counts of perjury for lying about her finances when withdrawing $90,000 from her city retirement account to purchase the Florida homes, it seems certain that Mosby’s political career is over. But will she lose her license to practice the law?
According to her lawyers, probably not. It was over a month after Mosby’s conviction before Maryland’s bar counsel even filed a petition with the state’s Supreme Court to temporarily suspend Mosby’s license. For her part, showing the height of chutzpah — or maybe knowing the bar counsel’s inclinations — Mosby is already fighting this temporary suspension. Her lawyer reportedly believes that the “final sanction in the attorney discipline case will not be significant, so a temporary suspension of Mosby’s law license threatens to exceed the actual punishment she will receive in the end.”
That’s outrageous. But it should come as no surprise. State bar associations, which exist to uphold the integrity of the legal profession and protect the public from unscrupulous lawyers, will typically pursue even minor violations of their code of professional conduct with zeal. Yet when it comes to rogue prosecutors like Mosby, who have refused to do their jobs and even engaged in misconduct
