Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown says the “advice letter” his office sent to a state senator closely allied with Mayor Brandon Scott – which Scott then pitched as the rationale for limiting record searches by Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming – is anything but governing or mandatory.

“It could have been written by a second-year law student,” he told The Brew today, referring to the 2½-page letter posted by Scott’s office as justification for denying Cumming access to MONSE (Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement) material and other city records “to ensure the city comes into compliance with state law.”

While Scott’s office has repeatedly referred to the advice letter as “opinion from the Maryland Attorney General’s Office,” Brown contradicted that notion.

“It is really just a summary of the Maryland Public Information Act in response to a legislator’s question. Nothing more,” he said.

“We are not opining on the Baltimore inspector general’s work or on MONSE’s work,” he pointed out. “We are just explaining to a member of the General Assembly, Senator Antonio Hayes, the contours of the Maryland Public Information Act.”

In contrast, an “opinion of the attorney general” would differ in fundamental ways.

“If it were an opinion of the attorney general, this would be about 25 to 45 pages, fully vetted and representative of the collective wisdom of the office. You would have had a very thorough factual analysis of the law and the application of the law to the facts, nuanced with legislative history and case law and prior opinions of the attorney general,” he said.

Contrary to an AG opinion, a letter of advice is usually kept confidential, Brown said, away from the eyes of both the media and the public. “We do ask our clients, members of the General Assembly, whether they want a confidential advice letter or not.”

“If it were an opinion of the attorney general, this would be about 25 to 45 pages, fully vetted and representative of the collective wisdom of the office”  – AG Anthony Brown.

In this case, the public posting of the letter was not made by Senator Hayes, but by the Scott administration on February 6, accompanied a letter from City Solicitor Ebony Thompson to Scott and City Administrator Faith Leach.

Her letter claimed that “the attached opinion [sic] confirms the City’s obligations to protect privileged information from disclosure and explains why the City’s requirements for redactions and safeguards are not discretionary – they are mandated by State law.”

Thompson then listed the mandatory confidentiality provisions as, “among other things,” attorney-client communications (something never raised in the advice letter), personnel records, medical information and financial information, all cited in the MPIA law.

This interpretation of the MPIA by the Law Department resulted in the wholesale redaction of 200 pages of financial records from MONSE requested by Cumming and her team last month.

Founded on “Principle of Disclosure”

While Brown declined to comment directly on Solicitor Thompson’s letter, he emphasized that the MPIA “is founded on the principle of disclosure.”

“That’s why there are mandatory exceptions. They are exceptions to the principle that we will disclose. So the presumption is for  disclosure and transparency in government.”

He noted that the advice letter, in a footnote, points out that a government unit can obtain information from another government unit that is otherwise subject to MPIA restrictions.

“That’s why there are mandatory exceptions. They are exceptions to the principle that we will disclose”  – AG Brown.

“In other words, there are exceptions to the mandatory exceptions,” he told The Brew. “This means that the legislature has identified circumstances where local units should have access to records that otherwise would not be accessible because of the MPIA. That’s a policy decision of the general assembly, and the assembly has identified circumstances where local units should have access to records that otherwise would not be accessible because of the MPIA.”

Would he recommend that the General Assembly specify that inspector general offices in Baltimore City, Montgomery County, Baltimore County and elsewhere can access privileged records in order to fulfill their mission of protecting the public “from waste, fraud and abuse” in local government?

“It would be premature to answer that,” Brown replied.

During Cumming’s eight-year tenure as Baltimore inspector general, city records deemed confidential were kept protected. All public-facing reports issued by her office were condensed versions of more detailed reports provided to Mayor Scott, his staff and relevant department heads.

The public reports do not name individuals, vendors or contractors under scrutiny. Nor do they identify medical, HR or financial information.

What’s been at issue is the sudden restriction of the IG’s access to city financial and personnel records that Cumming says is essential to review determine whether there is cause to investigate a complaint of financial waste, abuse or potential corruption. As the custodian of those records, Cumming was legally obliged to keep the records confidential.

Advice Letter Writer

The advice letter to Sen. Hayes was written by Assistant Attorney General Shaunee L. Harrison. Prior to providing legal advice to the General Assembly, she worked as a prosecutor under then-Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

Harrison was first hired in March 2016 as a law clerk and became an assistant state’s attorney in 2018 after she passed the bar. She started out in district courts and ended up in the narcotics division, leaving the office in 2021, several months before Mosby was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of perjury and mortgage fraud.

Those charges partially stemmed from an investigation conducted by IG Cumming at the request of Mosby, who was angered by Baltimore Brew stories about her extensive national and international travel and setting up a private company called Mahogany Elite.

When the IG issued a report critical of Mosby’s travel and apparent use of Mahogany Elite to write off business expenses, she and her then-husband Nicholas Mosby and other political allies denounced Cumming.

Sen. Hayes attended a worship service in support of Marilyn Mosby after she was indicted in January 2022.