FBI Raids Baltimore Mayor's Home and City Hall Office, Presumably Searching for Evidence of "Brazen, Cartoonish Corruption"
Update: Source Says She Fled the State?

You probably know about this story.

The mayor of Baltimore has been running a grift: She self-published her own stupid children's books about health, about the unimaginitively named "Healthy Holly."

She made these books available. To, for example, health care providers looking to sign lucrative contracts with the city of Baltimore.

And you won't believe this --health care providers looking to sign lucrative contracts with the city of Baltimore bought tens of thousands of copies of this self-published book, putting a great deal of money in the mayor's pockets, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh revealed on Monday that she's going to be taking an indefinite leave of absence. She cited health concerns, but critics are suspicious of the timing.

Recently, it was reported that Baltimore's largest health providers paid Pugh hundreds of thousands of dollars for her self-published "Healthy Holly" children’s books. Those include Kaiser Permanente, the University of Maryland Medical System, and more. The payment from Kaiser came when the company was seeking a contract to provide health benefits to city employees.

Kaiser Permanente, UMMS, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, all bought copies of this book to "distribute" to children or some bullshit.

UMMS bought the most -- 100,000 copies for a sweet half mil.

Health provider Kaiser Permanente paid Pugh more than $100,000 to buy about 20,000 copies of her books during a period when the company was seeking a lucrative contract to provide health benefits to city employees.

And the nonprofit Associated Black Charities says it collected nearly $90,000 from five separate entities -- including CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, another city insurer -- to buy and distribute 10,000 copies of Pugh's books, forwarding nearly $80,000 of that to Pugh's company and pocketing the rest.

Pugh previously said that the $500,000 she was paid by UMMS for 100,000 books represented her only sales. On Monday, her attorney, Steven Silverman, did not dispute the purchases as described by Kaiser and Associated Black Charities. He stressed only that they had not purchased books UMMS had paid for already.

Why did the UMMS buy so many of these books?

Well, I don't want to speculate unduly, but it might have something to do with the fact that the Children's Author Pugh sat on the UMMS' board.

Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned Monday from the University of Maryland Medical System’s board of directors amid intense scrutiny over the system’s contracting practices -- and as Baltimore school officials acknowledged that 8,700 copies of children's books the medical system purchased from her are sitting unread in a warehouse.

Those are just the ones we know about. I doubt too many books made it into the hands of the kids they were supposedly bought for, and I bet you count the number of kids who actually read these Barely-Disguised Vehicles for Graft on two hands.

Pugh's resignation came after the mayor has encountered heavy criticism for failing to fully disclose the $500,000 business relationship she started in 2011 with the medical system as she sat on the volunteer board overseeing the hospitals.

...

But the Baltimore school system said Monday the books were "unsolicited," were never used for instruction, and officials had no accounting of how many books actually went to students.

The Baltimore Sun discovered that nine of the UMMS' board members had entered into "business relationships" with the UMMS. I wonder what other tax-payer subsidized graft for politicians we'll be discovering.

And now, the FBI takes a pause from chasing down the Steele Dossier and covering up Hillary Clinton's crimes to do actual work, searching Mayor Pugh's home and city hall office for evidence of crimes.

Huh -- she writes books about a character called "Healthy Holly" and yet she disappears from her job for a month due to being "sick."

Seems like maybe she's not such an expert in health!

Update: She's fleeing the state?

Does she not know the FBI has national jurisdiction?

Where is Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh? It's the question buzzing around the city as the FBI and IRS raid Pugh's home, City Hall and several other locations tied to her Thursday. But, no one has seen the mayor and her own spokesperson doesn’t know where she is even though she’s supposed to be recovering from pneumonia.

Pugh's spokesman, James Bentley, told The Associated Press Thursday that he hadn’t spoken with the mayor and doesn’t know where she is. Her defense attorney, Steve Silverman, did not immediately return calls; his office routed calls to an answering machine.

However, a source tells WJZ however Pugh was at her home when the raid began, but has since left the state.

This is a straight-up Simpsons Con-Man move.

Update: Source Says She Fled the State?&bodytext=You probably know about this story. The mayor of Baltimore has been running a grift: She self-published her own stupid children's books about health, about the unimaginitively named "Healthy Holly." She made these books available. To, for example, health care...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace of Spades at 02:11 PM

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