FBI and criminal-division IRS agents raided the Ashburton residence of Mayor Catherine Pugh, another home owned by Pugh, City Hall, her attorney’s office, and a nonprofit once led by Pugh Thursday morning.

The Washington D.C. agents were executing federal search warrants authorized by the U.S. District Court of Maryland in Baltimore, said Baltimore-based FBI public affairs specialist Dave Fitz. The Maryland Office of the State Prosecutor is currently investigating Pugh for sales paid for by the University of Maryland Medical System, where she sat on the board, of her self-published Healthy Holly children’s books.

FBI agents were also on site at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Liberty Square. The job training program, once led by Pugh, listed former Pugh staffers fired this week by acting Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young”—Gary Brown Jr., Poetri Deal, and Afra Vance-White as board members—according to reporting by The Baltimore Sun. (The online page listing its board of directors was not available this morning, the center was closed Monday for spring break.) Brown had been found guilty of making illegal campaign contributions to Pugh during her bid for mayor in 2016, but nonetheless remained on her staff.

Top Pugh advisor, former judge, and Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith, who was cited for an illegal campaign loan before being given a position in her administration, resigned earlier this month.

Arriving at City Hall Thursday morning—where an estimated 20 FBI agents were at work—Pugh spokesman James Bentley II told Baltimore magazine that he’d just learned of the raids and had no previous knowledge the mayor was under investigation by the FBI. City Solicitor Andre Davis told reporters Thursday morning that he learned of FBI/IRS investigation of Pugh from news reports.

The 69-year-old Pugh, who remains on leave from office following a bout of pneumonia, “is still recovering” from her illness, Bentley said. He added that there was no change to announce regarding Pugh’s stated plans to return to office. Pugh said at the start of the month that she was taking an indefinite sick leave on the same day Gov. Larry Hogan called for the investigation into sales of her Healthy Holly books to customers with business with the state and city, including UMMS, Kaiser Permantente, and local developer.

The book deals, first reported by The Sun, earned about $800,000 for the limited liability company Pugh established around her widely derided Healthy Holly series. In the wake of corruption allegations, the entire 14-member City Council—save Young, the City Council president—Baltimore City’s contingent of state delegates in General Assembly, Peter Franchot, the state’s comptroller, and Greater Baltimore Committee have asked for Pugh’s resignation.

Since the revelations of Pugh’s book deals, there has been discussion among the city’s leaders about amending the Baltimore’s charter and the state constitution to enable the removal of a sitting mayor. As it stands, only a criminal conviction can trigger a Baltimore mayor’s removal from office.

Young, formally Baltimore’s Ex Officio Mayor while Pugh is on paid leave, has said he is not interested in running for mayor. His spokesman, Lester Davis, reiterated to Baltimore magazine Thursday Young “is focused on running the city.”

City Councilman Brandon Scott, considered a potential 2020 mayoral candidate, called for Pugh to resign immediately. He described the raids as an “embarrassment” and said the City needs move forward. “Baltimore is a great and resilient city, but we can’t afford to waste anymore time on this issue,” Scott said. “There are many important issues in front of us that require the complete attention of a full-time Mayor.”

In a tweet, Gov. Hogan restated his call for Pugh to step down. “Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” Hogan said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

The raid of Pugh’s home, of course, is a reminder of a similar raid in 2008 of then Mayor Sheila Dixon’s home. In 2009, Dixon pled guilty to using more than $500 in retail store gift cards intended for needy families

Mayor Catherine Pugh and City Solicitor Andre Davis announced today that Baltimore has filed a lawsuit in state Circuit Court in an effort to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change, alleging they knowingly contributed to “potentially catastrophic” consequences of sea-level rise and extreme weather events.

In filing the lawsuit, Baltimore joins a dozen cities to date, including New York and San Francisco, which have launched legal actions against 26 of the most powerful oil and gas corporations in the world—including Exxon Mobil, Shell Oil, Citgo, Chevron, and BP.

With 60 miles of waterfront and an economy built around one of the busiest ports in the world, Baltimore “faces growing costs to protect its residents, businesses, and infrastructure from rising seas and other climate change-related damages,” the mayor’s office said in a press release.

Beyond the potential harm to the Inner Harbor, port neighborhoods and local businesses from sea-level rise, city officials highlighted the potential for harm—and taxpayer burden—from more damaging and more frequent heat waves, droughts and storms.

“These oil and gas companies knew for decades that their products would harm communities like ours, and we’re going to hold them accountable,” said Davis, a formal federal judge hired by Pugh in 2017 to lead the city’s law office. “Baltimore’s residents, workers, and businesses shouldn’t have to pay for the damage knowingly caused by these companies.”

In January of 2015, Baltimore wrote about the already dire consequences of global warming on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and coming problems facing cities such Annapolis and Baltimore. In the past two years, the Baltimore region—most severely felt in Ellicott City—has been impacted by two “1,000-year” storms.

In making the announcement of the lawsuit, Davis said the litigation was modeled after the legal action that helped states recover Medicaid expenses from the tobacco industry.

“For 50 years, these companies have known their products would cause rising seas and the other climate change-related problems facing Baltimore today,” said Davis. “They could have warned us. They could have taken steps to minimize or avoid the damage. In fact, they had a responsibility to do both, but they didn’t, and that’s why we are taking them to court.

In New York, a federal judge rejected New York State’s lawsuit yesterday that would’ve made fossil fuel companies pay the rising cost of dealing with global warming-related issues. But that decision did not dissuade Davis, who noted that a ruling has not yet been made in an appellate court.

“The founding fathers would approve of this lawsuit,” he said Friday, mentioning federalists Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton. “They understood that states and localities have a role to play, and state court judges have an important role to play to ensure that justice is delivered to the people.”

The City of Baltimore will be assisted by outside counsel from Sher Edling LLP, a San Francisco-based firm specializing in environmental cases.

According to the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, climate change is already impacting city residents. Their website notes that as global warming continues, the city will face more extreme temperatures, increased demand for energy for cooling power, greater fluctuations between flooding and drought, extended heat waves, and an increase in incidences of asthma and other respiratory ailments.

“Part of what we allege is that their campaign of deception and burying the science they knew—the climate science they knew beginning in the late 1950s—[is that] it forestalled meaning regulation of the industry,” said Suzanne Sangree, senior public safety counsel in the Baltimore City Law Department. “It also prevented the development of alternative energy sources and alternative technology that could be used by the city and so part of what we seek is the cost of adapting, the cost of developing and converting to more sustainable technology.”