Baltimore IG apologizes for post the Scott administration called racist

Baltimore’s inspector general apologized for posting an AI-generated image of Mayor Brandon Scott that prompted a complaint to the city’s ethics board earlier this week.

In a two-paragraph statement issued late Wednesday, Isabel Mercedes Cumming said she was sorry for sharing an image that depicted the mayor chomping on a cigar, clutching a glass of brown liquor and holding a fistful of luxury shopping bags in front of a suitcase overflowing with cash. The post, which has since been deleted, included a link to a YouTube video that contained misinformation about the city’s budget.

“A friend send me this very interesting video from YouTube - ties many things together,” Cumming wrote in the post.

On Wednesday, Cumming said the video included a “satirical, AI-generated digital image that I did not notice and do not endorse or support.”

The inspector general said she removed the video from her social media after “receiving feedback.”

“I apologize to Mayor Scott, my dedicated OIG team, and the residents of Baltimore City,” Cumming said. “This post detracted from the important mission of the OIG to investigate waste, financial abuse and fraud. It will not happen again.”

In an interview Wednesday, Scott said he regards the image as an updated version of past racist imagery of Black people.

“Our features are always exaggerated,” he said. “When you see that kind of stuff, you cannot allow it to slide.”

Scott said he believed Cumming was aware the image was AI-generated.

“Anybody that looks at that image knows it was AI,” he said. “You would have to be a blind 90-year-old person to not know that’s AI. Clearly that’s not me.”

Scott’s team argues the video is part of a pattern of behavior by Cumming on social media that has undermined her credibility.

On Tuesday, J.D. Merrill, Scott’s chief of staff, sent a letter to the Baltimore City Board of Ethics and the advisory board that oversees Cumming, calling the post “deeply inappropriate, misleading, damaging, and racist.”

Merrill submitted several other posts by the inspector general with his letter and asked the two boards to review Cumming’s online conduct.

“Promoting this type of content to the public we serve raises serious questions on IG Cumming’s ability to bring fairness and objectivity to the essential work of the OIG,” Merrill wrote.

The clash comes amid an ongoing legal dispute between Scott and Cumming over access to city records.

Cumming sued the administration earlier this year in an attempt to enforce a subpoena for records related to the city’s anti-violence program. The administration previously cut off the direct access to records Cumming had enjoyed during her eight-year tenure.

On Friday, retired Baltimore Circuit Associate Judge Pamela J. White signaled her support of Cumming’s effort, saying during a hearing that the administration was minimizing the authority of Cumming’s office under the city’s charter.