Jury selection started Tuesday morning (Oct. 31) in the federal perjury trial of former Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who rose to national prominence when her office criminally charged Baltimore police officers in connection with Freddie Gray’s death in 2015.

Federal prosecutors alleged in a January 2022 indictment that Mosby lied about coronavirus-related financial hardships to withdraw money early from her city retirement account to buy two Florida vacation homes. They also accuse her of lying on the mortgage application for the purchases.

CBS News Baltimore reports that potential jurors had to answer 59 questions, including whether they personally took COVID-related withdrawals from their retirement accounts, the fairness of the judicial system and the harshness of federal punishments.

Mosby has said she’s not guilty of wrongdoing. Her previous attorney called the charges “bogus” and claimed the allegations against her “are rooted in personal, political and racial animus five months from her election,” CNN reported.

The prosecution and defense teams must reduce the jury pool from 64 to 36 before selecting a final panel of 12 jurors plus four alternates, according to WBAL. The judge wants to seat and instruct the jury by the end of Wednesday (Nov. 1) and start the proceedings the next day.

This jury will hear testimony on the perjury charge. A federal judge, siding with the defense, agreed to split the perjury and mortgage fraud charges into two separate trials.

At Mosby’s request, the judge also moved the proceedings from Baltimore to Greenbelt because the defense presented evidence that many potential jurors in Baltimore had an unfavorable opinion of the former prosecutor.

In July 2022, Mosby lost her Democratic primary for reelection as Baltimore state’s attorney.