Fox News and a handful of conservative blogs have picked up on a story that should have been a minor controversy involving Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s Twitter account. However, because of the way she has handled the issue, it could become a major problem for her.
The Daily Caller got the ball rolling on Wednesday when it reported on two controversial tweets which were “favorited” by Mosby on May 6. In one of the tweets, the officers charged in the Freddie Gray case were derisively called “those 6 THUG cops.” In the other tweet, a different user praised Mosby’s handling of the case and crowed that she “INFURIATES a certain kind of white person.”
By endorsing a tweet labeling the officers as “thugs,” Mosby undermines a defense she made on behalf of the rioters and looters who descended on Baltimore last month. During a speech she gave in the days after the riots — but before Baltimore police investigators had concluded their investigation — Mosby slammed public officials who called the rioters “thugs.”
“Our young people, I know that they’re called ‘thugs,’” Mosby angrily told an audience of clergy members. “Those are young people crying out. There’s a sense of hopelessness in this city.”
Mosby has also been accused of using rhetoric better suited for a political stump speech than a criminal case.
“To the people of Baltimore and the demonstrators across America, I heard your call for ‘No justice, no peace,’” she said when announcing charges against the officers. “Your peace is seriously needed as I seek to deliver justice to this young man.”
When Mosby was called out on the tweets, she claimed that she was hacked. (We are asked to believe that a hacker hacked into her Twitter account to “favorite” two problematic tweets that indicate her bias — and did nothing else.)
While it was known that the Baltimore City state’s attorney’s official Twitter account was hacked last week, this is the first time that anyone has claimed Mosby’s personal account was also infiltrated.
Mosby tweeted from her personal account on May 23 that her official government account had been hacked. But she made no reference to a breach of her personal account.
Fox News reported Thursday night that Mosby seems to like to endorse tweets.
“Since the beginning of the month, Mosby has favorited 112 tweets — including one slamming Fox News, and another tweet from the very same woman who says she infuriates white people,” Fox’s Trace Gallagher reported. “And despite the alleged hack, Mosby’s personal account — unlike her official account — was not taken down or suspended, and still has the same user name.”
Megyn Kelly has covered the story for two nights in a row, casting serious doubt on the hacking claim. On Thursday night she had on two trial attorneys, Arthur Aidala and Mark Eiglarsh, to discuss the controversy.
“I’m a defense lawyer,” Eiglarsh began, “so I’ll say in her defense — anything is possible.” He added, “I’ll also say Kim Kardashian could get the Republican nomination.”
“This must have been the laziest hacker ever,” Kelly joked, referring to the fact that all the alleged hacker did was favorite a couple of tweets.
She took on a more serious tone later in the segment: “If she favorited those tweets,” Kelly posited, “she has compounded the problem by lying about it to the national media when she got caught. And that poses a separate problem for Miss Mosby if it is true.”
Eiglarsh made an interesting assertion towards the end of the segment when he urged Mosby to change the venue of the trial.
“She knows that there are people — a movement now in Baltimore to get young men signed up to vote so that they can go into the jury pool — it’s in the motion…” he said, referring to the 85-page document filed Wednesday by defense attorneys for the six police officers to have the case tried elsewhere in Maryland.
The lawyers argue that their clients can’t get a “fair and impartial trial” in Baltimore because a “presumption of prejudice” exists in the city.
Via the Baltimore Sun:
In their motion, attorneys in the Gray case warned of a movement in the city to register young men to vote “so they can get on the jury to convict the officers.”
“It will be impossible to ferret out the bias and resentment of those prospective jury members who choose to hide their deeply held prejudices to get onto the jury,” they said.
At the very least, there needs to be a venue change in this case.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member