The Sun, Brew press appeals court to reveal Mosby donor names

Nick Mosby, left, leaves federal court in September 2023 after a hearing involving his now ex-wife, Marilyn Mosby, center. staff

The Baltimore Sun and Baltimore Brew asked the Appellate Court of Maryland on Tuesday to lift the veil on the names of financial donors to Nick and Marilyn Mosby’s legal defense fund.

The two news organizations appealed the Baltimore City Circuit Court’s decision last year to keep secret the names of more than 130 donors who raised over $14,000 for the Mosbys. Last March, the city court reversed the decision of the Baltimore Board of Ethics, which said the names should be public.

On Tuesday, Judges Anne Albright, Kathryn Graeff and Patrick Woodward questioned the media companies’ attorney, Michael McCann, and the city’s attorney, Michael Redmond, on their theories of the public records request law governing the disclosure.

McCann put forth a textual argument, saying the Maryland General Assembly could have forbade the disclosure of all financial records but didn’t. Rather, the regulations could allow the names to be public because the records wouldn’t indicate specific financial activity or assets, for example.

The donors also had no expectation to privacy because they typed in their names when they could have chosen to be anonymous, McCann said.

Redmond, on the other hand, argued that disclosing the names would not meet any of the three exceptions laid out by the law. The statute in question also does not have an expectation of privacy component, he said.

According to previous reporting, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill found the ethics compliance board erred when it relied on Maryland election law and Internal Revenue Service code to argue that donations to the legal-defense fund are akin to campaign contributions.

Under city law, a contribution to a legal-defense fund can count as a gift to a public official. In some cases, such gifts aren’t permitted. In others, they must be disclosed in an official’s annual ethics report, The Sun reported in September 2023.

Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby filed for “limited divorce” in 2023 from now-former City Council President Nick Mosby. Nick Mosby is now a commissioner on the state’s Lottery and Gaming Control Commission.

The redacted records include the date and time of the donation, the amount donated in cents, the card type and brand used to make the donation, the issuing bank of the card and the ZIP code that state donors entered. Names, emails and cities of the donors are redacted.

Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at [e-mail], 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.