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Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, Now In Federal Prison, Denied Presidential Clemency

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Disgraced former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh wants out of the Alabama prison where she has been behind bars since June.

Pugh asked outgoing President Donald Trump to commute her sentence and send her home to the mixed reaction of her former constituents. But it was denied in the early morning hours of Jan. 20.

Catherine Pugh's Sentence Not Commuted By Outgoing President Trump

Catherine Pugh DOJ
Pugh's clemency request remains pending on the Department of Justice website. Photo: DOJ screenshot

"Why not give it a shot. The worst he can say is 'no.'" said city resident David Rogers said Tuesday.

Others said Pugh needs to serve her sentence. "The nerve of her!" said another Baltimore resident who declined to give her name. "You do the crime then you pay the time!"

Pugh perhaps hopes the warm welcome she gave to Mr. Trump more than four years ago—when she was the only Baltimore politician to greet him at the Army-Navy game—will come back to help her.

 

She described that day at a press conference in December 2016.

 

"He walked over to me and I said, 'I am the mayor of Baltimore.' And he said, 'I know'" Pugh recalled to reporters at a December 2016 press conference. "I said, 'I'm very excited about being the mayor of Baltimore. Welcome to Baltimore. I'm so glad to see you in our city.'"

 

Pugh, who is 70, is serving a sentence of three years.

The ex-mayor enriched herself with more than three-quarters of a million dollars for her 'Healthy Holly' books. Many were supposed to go to Baltimore City school children, but few ever did. She re-sold them, with the help of a close aide, to fund her mayoral campaign and line her own pockets.

Back in May 2019, supporters of Pugh held a prayer circle for her on the front lawn of the Northwest Baltimore home federal prosecutors say she purchased with illicit profits.

 

But the ex-mayor is not the only one who wants clemency from President Trump. Ed Norris, the former head of the city and state police forces, is asking for a pardon of his 2004 federal corruption conviction that he long believed was motivated by politics.

And former Sgt. Thomas Allers who once lead the Gun Trace Task Force, the corrupt Baltimore police squad whose members robbed citizens, also wants President Trump to let him out of his 15-year sentence early.

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