Sign In
Free Newsletter
Thiru Vignarajah joins race for Baltimore City State’s Attorney
Listen to this article
Thiru Vignarajah will once again seek the job of Baltimore’s top prosecutor, joining a race that has been upended by a criminal indictment against the incumbent, Marilyn Mosby.
Vignarajah, a former prosecutor, announced his plan to run Tuesday, after widespread speculation that he might renew his candidacy.
Vignarajah ran for Baltimore City State’s Attorney in 2018 and for mayor of Baltimore in 2020. He lost both races in the primary.
“If any American city is facing a crisis worse than ours — a record-shattering crime crisis and a crisis of confidence — I am unaware of it,” Vignarajah said in a news release. “I have devoted my life to public service, to fighting crime as a federal and city prosecutor, and I simply can’t watch this human catastrophe from the sideline when I know I can do something to stop it.”
Vignarajah has served as a federal prosecutor, the chief of major investigations in the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office and as deputy attorney general in Maryland. He was also a partner at the law firm DLA Piper.
Vignarajah is running as a Democrat and will face Ivan Bates, a defense attorney who is also running for a second time. The race also includes Roya Hanna, a defense attorney and former prosecutor who recently announced she would drop out of the Democratic primary and run as an Independent.
Mosby, also a Democrat, has been noncommittal about her plans to run for reelection. She is currently facing a federal indictment on charges of perjury and making false statements on loan applications, and is pushing for a trial before the primary.
Redistricting challenges have added another wrinkle to the campaign. Maryland’s Court of Appeals last week postponed the primary date from June 28 to July 19 and gave candidates until April 15 to file for the race. Mosby has yet to file for reelection.
Tuesday’s announcement recalled the 2018 race, when Vignarajah ran against Mosby and Bates in the Democratic primary. Mosby, the incumbent, won that election, while Bates and Vignarajah split the opposition vote.
Vignarajah is known for handling the state’s opposition to a new trial for Adnan Syed, the subject of the “Serial” podcast who claims he was wrongly convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend in 1999.
Vignarajah also attracted attention after being targeted by right-wing activist James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, which surreptitiously recorded Vignarajah, then a deputy attorney general, being pressed for secrets by a woman in a hotel room. Attorney General Brian Frosh stood by Vignarajah and said no confidential information was shared during the exchange.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
