Mayor Catherine E. Pugh, who is under state and federal investigation over lucrative sales of her self-published children’s books, will resign, her attorney said Thursday, plunging this already rattled city into another political crisis.
Pugh (D), a former state lawmaker, has been under public scrutiny since at least March, following news reports about the book deals with companies that do business with the city and state.
Her resignation ends weeks of sometimes frenzied speculation over whether she would try to stay in office despite the scandal, questions that even her own aides and associates were asking up until the final hours.
It was a bruising setback for a city long besieged by poverty and violence and still recovering from a series of police corruption scandals and rioting in 2015 related to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Pugh, 69, is the second Baltimore mayor in the past decade to leave office while facing corruption allegations.