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F.B.I. Raids Baltimore City Hall and Mayor Catherine Pugh’s Homes F.B.I. Raids Baltimore City Hall and Mayor Catherine Pugh’s Homes
(about 3 hours later)
Federal agents raided Baltimore City Hall and two homes belonging to Mayor Catherine Pugh on Thursday morning. Hours after federal agents searched Baltimore City Hall and homes belonging to Mayor Catherine Pugh on Thursday morning as part of a series of coordinated raids, the governor of Maryland called for the mayor to resign, saying she had lost the ability to govern.
The authorities did not disclose what they were looking for in the searches, though Mayor Pugh has for weeks been embroiled in a scandal over hundreds of thousands of dollars she received from a series of children’s books she has written over the years. “Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” Gov. Larry Hogan said in a statement. “She is clearly not fit to lead.”
Agents from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service executed search warrants at City Hall, at Ms. Pugh’s homes and at the Maryland Center for Adult Training, a nonprofit job training program, an F.B.I. spokesman, Dave Fitz, said. The governor’s demand for Mayor Pugh’s resignation comes a little more than two weeks after the Baltimore City Council urged Ms. Pugh to step down, and three weeks after Governor Hogan ordered a state investigation into the business relationship between Ms. Pugh and a company with extensive financial ties to the city.
Earlier this month, Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland asked state prosecutors to investigate a $500,000 payment that Ms. Pugh received from a nonprofit health care company with ties to the state and city governments for her “Healthy Holly” books, which promoted healthy children’s eating and exercise. The federal authorities did not disclose on Thursday what they were looking for in the early morning searches at City Hall and two of Ms. Pugh’s homes in Baltimore as well as at the Maryland Center for Adult Training, a nonprofit job training program.
At the time of the arrangement, Ms. Pugh, a Democrat, was a state senator and sat on the nonprofit’s board of directors. She resigned from that position after news of the payments became public in March, apologized for oversights she had made on financial disclosure forms and returned $100,000. Agents from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service executed the search warrants, said an F.B.I. spokesman, Dave Fitz.
As the payments became public and officials called for her resignation, Ms. Pugh took a leave of absence this month after suffering from a bout of pneumonia. She has denied wrongdoing. Ms. Pugh, who has denied wrongdoing, has been embroiled for weeks in a scandal over hundreds of thousands of dollars she received for a series of children’s books she began writing in 2011.
A spokesman for the mayor did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday morning. On April 1, Governor Hogan asked state prosecutors to investigate a $500,000 payment that Ms. Pugh received from the University of Maryland Medical System, a nonprofit health care company that operates hospitals and other health care facilities in Baltimore and around the state.
The payment was for copies of Ms. Pugh’s “Healthy Holly” books, which promote healthy children’s eating and exercise. The books were to be distributed to schools in the city.
At the time of the arrangement, Ms. Pugh, a Democrat, was a state senator and sat on the nonprofit organization’s board of directors. She resigned from the board after news of the payments became public in March, apologized for oversights she had made on financial disclosure forms, and returned $100,000.
But as embarrassing new details emerged, including that the vast majority of the books never reached school children and could not be located, a growing number of elected officials called for her resignation.
Ms. Pugh took a leave of absence this month after contracting pneumonia, but she has said she planned to return once she recovers. In her absence, the City Council president, Bernard C. Young, has led the city.
James Bentley, a spokesman for Mayor Pugh, did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday morning.