Post # 400 – Another win for Baltimore IG Isabel Cumming and city taxpayers

In 1974 the United States Supreme Court unanimously issued a ruling requiring President Nixon to turnover a variety of Watergate tapes. When the ruling was issued and reviewed by the White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, he famously described the ruling as “tight as a drum”. Judge White’s ruling last Friday is extremely similar.

White’s ruling started by denying Baltimore City’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the IG to regain access to Baltimore City government records. White ordered Baltimore City to respond to the 49 subpoenas the IG’s office requested in an amended complaint. White has asked the city law department to turn over records identified and subpoenaed by Inspector General Cumming. But now the city is trying to create chaos with a ridiculous argument on appeal. (More on that later.)

In her seventeen-page ruling, White made it clear that the arguments the city was making primarily that the Office of Inspector General (OIG) may not operate outside of the confines of the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) and that the city properly provides documents to the OIG with redactions mandated by state law including the MPIA is wrong.

The defendant’s decisions and actions now challenging challenged by the plaintiffs and defendants current legal arguments appear misconceived appeared too misconceived the constitutional premise and statutory mandates underlying the responsibilities of an independent Inspector General as set out in the City Charter.

White used her ruling to remind city officials that the electorate in Baltimore City has been supportive of the office of Inspector General going back to 2018, “rather the office of Inspector General reports directly to Baltimore citizens”.

Notwithstanding the scope of responsibilities and breadth of investigatory powers clearly established for an Inspector General operating independently of an elected mayor and City Council, Defendant is intent on forcing OIG investigatory functions into requests procedures of the MPIA defendants dismissal motion counters the legal premise of the amended complaint…

OIG investigatory functions and subpoenas are not mirror requests for public information from other government units or employees. OIG subpoenas are legal orders compelling attendance and production of evidence serving as investigatory fact finding tools authorized by the charter and seeking relevant information. There is nothing about an OIG investigation or subpoena authority that could be fairly characterized OIG as an applicant... that asked to in inspect a public record.

Defendants insistence and cutting or revoking access to servers, refusing to make city data resources available to OIG is really described by plaintiffs as having interfered with plaintiff’s performance of charter responsibilities challenging such policy pronouncements an obstruction of OIG efforts to enforce its subpoenas is met by the city’s solicitors refusal to permit OIG to retain private counsel despite the obvious conflicts as the city solicitor interferes with the independent operations of OIG by withholding investigatory information the solicitor also refuses to secure independent counsel for OIG in the face of those adverse interests.

1. Because the pending Motion is supported by certain documents and Affidavits accompanying the Verified Amended Complaint and Motion, Defendant s further response to the written Motion, pursuant to Rule2-501(b), shall (1) identify with particularity each material fact as to which it is contended that there is a genuine dispute and (2) as to each such fact, identify and attach the relevant portion of the specific document...or other statement under oath that demonstrates the dispute.

2. Also pursuant to Rule2-501(b), within 15 days of the filing date of this Order, Defendant s response asserting the existence of a material fact or controverting any fact contained in the record shall be supported by an affidavit or other written statement under oath.

3. Because Defendant s counsel represented at hearing that responses to outstanding OIG subpoenas have been and are being prepared on a rolling basis, Defendant shall promptly identify and produce to Plaintiffs the entirety of each response to (a) each subpoena identified in Paragraphs 49, 61-62, 82, 84-85, 86 in the Amended Complaint, and (b) each subpoena issued by OIG to each and any City agency or governmental unit since April 10, 2026.

In a nutshell Judge White is telling the city to turn over the documents to Baltimore City IG Isabel Cumming. The MPIA plays no role in any of this, and city officials are using it as a stalling tactic.

A few things are obvious about the events of the last few months. First political leaders like members of City Council (minus Mark Conway) and the City Council President Zeke Cohen don’t want to get to the truth behind what’s going on with MONSE. Notice they’re not commenting publicly about this or any of the previous events on this legal drama. You can’t stand up against waste, fraud and abuse silently, but city council members are doing their best and doing it rather well.

One thing to keep in mind is there are other Inspector Generals offices in the state of Maryland and this one ruling impacts several of those offices as other governments in Baltimore County, Howard County and Montgomery County could also deny access to public records.

If I was giving the mayor any advice in this case, I would suggest getting better legal counsel because the legal counsel he has right now in Ebony Thompson is God awful. She couldn’t argue her way out of a paper bag. About a month ago, as a distraction, attorney Karl Racine was brought in to do his own investigation. Racine, Thompson and the former city solicitor Jim Shea all at one time worked at the Venable Law Office together. In a previous post, I outlined Racine’s bad experience when he was in Cleveland. (Post #376).

BUT NOW SCOTT, EBONY THOMPSON AND FAITH LEACH ARE TRYING TO SUBVERT THE PROCESS.

On Monday City Solicitor Ebony Thompson, doing the bidding of Mayor Scott and City Administrator Faith Leach, filed a motion asking Judge White for some clarification on her very clear ruling last Friday. Thompson started her argument by basically asking the judge to change her mind on her legal ruling.

Thompson wants Judge White to explain what the judge means by the word “promptly” in her order. Thompson doesn’t seem very bright so I will use this opportunity to explain promptly to her in this sense. If my mother told me to do something “promptly” it meant that I was already late in doing it and if I didn’t do it promptly, I’d get a smack upside the head, and I would richly deserve it. Just as White should consider legally smacking Thompson upside the head.

Why are the citizens who overwhelmingly support the OIG getting the subpoenaed records being treated so badly? Cumming legal team are working Pro Bono (free) but Ebony Thompson is making the taxpayers pay for this silly legal battle and it appears has an inability to “promptly” comprehend a legal order from a judge. This does not speak well for University of Baltimore law school graduates.

Thompson’s motion is clearly a stalling tactic. Remember Thompson is Brandon Scott’s client, and an attorney generally known the information the client knows. Thompson knows what’s in these various subpoenas that the Inspector General is requesting. Thompson is still going back to the arguments related to the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) that White was already dismissive of. Thompson is relying again on the attorney-client privilege argument which does not apply in this case.

Inspector General Cummings legal team is filing paperwork on Friday in response to all this. The drama continues at City Hall, which means clearly there is something that is being hidden from the public and from the Inspector General’s office. Most likely related to MONSE. Remember state Senator Antonio Hayes, Attorney General Anthony Brown and Bill Ferguson have been taking actions to protect Scott. Right now, 49 subpoenas could be 49 ticking time bombs. In Watergate the cover up was worse than the crime, which means the crimes here must be really spectacular.