Former Maryland State's Attorney for Baltimore Marilyn Mosby was separately convicted in February of this year and in November 2023 on multiple federal criminal charges, including perjury and mortgage fraud, and faces a maximum combined sentence of 40 years in prison at a sentencing hearing later this month.

A host of civil rights and black interest groups led by the NAACP are now calling upon President Joe Biden to preemptively pardon Mosby before she is sentenced, The Hill reported.

Rather incredibly, those groups blamed Mosby's prosecution and convictions on the prior Trump administration, despite the fact that they have been out of office for three years and the prosecution and convictions were pursued and won by a Biden-appointed U.S. attorney.

Mosby prosecuted and convicted by Biden-appointed attorney

In November 2023, the Department of Justice announced that Mosby was convicted on two counts of perjury, with a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each charge, that stemmed from her false claim of financial "hardship" during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to justify an early withdrawal of $90,000 from Baltimore’s Deferred Compensation Plan.

Except, prosecutors showed that she suffered no such "hardship" during the pandemic -- in fact, she never missed a single paycheck -- and Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek Barron said of the conviction following a trial, "We respect the jury’s verdict and remain steadfastly committed to our mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, protect the civil rights of all Americans, and safeguard public property."

Just a few months later in February, the DOJ again announced that Mosby was convicted, this time of making a false mortgage application -- in 2021 -- to purchase rental property in Florida, for which she faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

On that verdict, Barron said, "We humbly respect the court’s considered rulings, opposing counsels’ zealous advocacy, and the wisdom of both jury verdicts in this case and we remain focused on our mission to uphold the rule of law."

It must be noted that U.S. Attorney Barron, who is black like Mosby and the several groups outraged over her convictions, was appointed to his current position by President Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2021, and thus has been in charge and had the final say over which investigations and prosecutions were pursued or dropped by his office.

Trump blamed for Biden-era prosecution and convictions

None of those facts were relevant to the NAACP and an assortment of other civil rights and black interest groups, apparently, as they decried Mosby's prosecution and convictions as a grave injustice committed by the prior Trump administration -- which has not been in power since January 2021.

In their letter to President Biden, the groups said, "On behalf of the nation’s civil rights, justice, and advocacy organizations, we write to request a presidential pardon of former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby."

"Ms. Mosby was wrongfully convicted and will face sentencing of up to 40 years in federal prison on May 23, 2024 after enduring the political persecution and malicious prosecution of the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ)," they continued. "We are deeply concerned that the last administration abused their power to advance a meritless indictment against Ms. Mosby and worse, the current administration’s U.S. Department of Justice ignored a clear political motive of the malicious prosecution against Ms. Mosby."

The "evidence" the groups presented of political persecution was that former Attorney General Bill Barr delivered a speech in February 2020 that called out progressive prosecutors, like Mosby, for going easy on criminals and going hard against law enforcement officers. They then pointed to Mosby's defiant threat in July 2020 to prosecute any federal agents who attempted to interfere with ongoing protests and riots in Baltimore that summer -- shortly after which she came under investigation for the pandemic-related perjury charges for the early withdrawal of her retirement funds.

Trump admin accused of "selective prosecution" that occurred under Biden

"We expect that political persecutions and malicious prosecutions pursued during the Trump Administration would not continue in the Biden Administration. Ms. Mosby’s case is not the only one -- it is the latest and one of the most egregious cases," the NAACP's letter stated. "This matter should be corrected because it is a miscarriage of justice and an example of the last administration’s misuse of authority."

The letter concluded, "We ask that you grant a full pardon to Ms. Marilyn Mosby before May 23, 2024, and restore her full rights. Given that this prosecution illustrates selective prosecution within the last administration, we ask that you direct a thorough review of the prosecution of Black elected
officials and other persons of color."