As part of an investigation, FBI raided her house Thursday morning.
The political corruption scandal roiling Baltimore, leading to an FBI raid of Mayor Catherine Pugh’s house Thursday morning, all began with a children’s book.
Pugh, who has been serving as the city’s mayor since 2016, is at the center of a controversy that started with the revelation in March that she’d sold her children’s books, the Healthy Holly series, to entities that have business deals with the city, including a $500,000 deal with the University of Maryland Medical System and a similar deal with health company Kaiser Permanente.
Pugh, who has been on leave since April 1, has made more than $800,000 from selling her self-published books, according to reporting from the Baltimore Sun.
Pugh says she “never intended to do anything that could not stand up to scrutiny.”
The book deals were under state investigation; the raids on Thursday suggest a federal crime might have been committed as well. On Thursday, after the FBI and IRS raided at least six different locations, including the mayor’s home and second residence and her attorney’s office, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, called on her to step down. The Baltimore City Council had already asked for Pugh’s resignation.
This all started with “Healthy Holly,” a children’s book about a young black girl who promotes self-improvement. Holly is the ideal kid: She exercises regularly and eats her veggie and fruits. She’s the main character of three books by Pugh: Healthy Holly: Exercising is Fun!, Healthy Holly: Fruits Come In Colors Like The Rainbow, and Healthy Holly: A Healthy Start for Herbie.
Pugh said she had the idea to write the series about a decade ago, when she was still a Democratic state senator, in order to encourage healthier lifestyles for children, according to the New York Times.
What might seem like an innocent project rapidly began to unravel after the Baltimore Sun reported that Pugh was making hundreds of thousands of dollars from sales of her books to people, companies, and charities that do business with the city.
