Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh claims she is too sick and “not lucid enough” to make any decisions about resigning in the face of a federal corruption probe.
The Democrat mayor went on sick leave on April 1, the day the FBI announced it was investigating more than $800,000 in book sales she received for her children’s book, Healthy Holly.
Federal investigators were looking into the sales after Pugh was found voting for contracts for companies that bought her book in bulk, according to the Daily Mail.
Pugh claimed she was wracked with pneumonia and bronchitis and was too ill to make serious decisions.
“She understands the predicament of the city… she just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make decisions.,” her lawyer, Steve Silverman, told the New York Post.
“She is generally aware that there is a consensus that she should resign,” Silverman added before saying that his client wasn’t “stable” enough to make a decision.
“For people to make material decisions in their life, they have to be at a certain level of stability,” Silverman insisted.
On Thursday, the FBI raided Pugh’s offices and carted out records regarding the book sales scandal.
Several companies, including the University of Maryland Medical System, Kaiser Permanente, the Association of Black Charities, and Grant Capital Management, gave between $87,000 and $500,000 to buy the mayor’s book in bulk.
Federal authorities said that Pugh then gave payback to these companies by awarding city contracts to them.
Calls have mounted for her to resign, but Baltimore statutes maintain that a mayor cannot be removed from office by force unless convicted of a crime.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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