By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews
A candidate running for Montgomery County Executive publicly accused a political opponent of paying nearly $19,000 to a journalist to write negative stories — basing the entire allegation on a screenshot with a typo in the committee name.
Mithun Banerjee, one of five candidates in the Democratic primary for the county’s top executive office, posted the accusation on Facebook on May 2, 2026, claiming that Andrew Friedson’s campaign had paid $18,900 to Glenn Fellman, whom Banerjee described as a “racist self-proclaimed media person” who had written “several Negative & False Articles” about him. Banerjee said he had sent Fellman cease-and-desist notices and promised to expose what he called systemic corruption in Montgomery County’s political establishment.
The screenshot he shared was not real.
The Tell Was in the Committee Name
The fabricated screenshot shows a filtered search on the Maryland State Board of Elections campaign finance portal — but the committee name in the filter field reads “Friedson, Andrew Fiends of.” The word is “Fiends,” not “Friends.” Every legitimate registered committee for Andrew Friedson appears in the state database as “Friedson, Andrew Friends of.” A commenter on Banerjee’s own post flagged the error within two days: “I will note there’s a typo in the committee name on the screenshot.”
That single typo is sufficient to disqualify the screenshot as authentic. The Maryland SBE finance portal is a filtered search tool — a committee with “Fiends” in its name does not exist in the database and cannot be searched for. There is no result set to screenshot.
The Database Tells a Different Story
Pulling the actual Friedson expenditure records from the Maryland SBE portal confirms the fabrication. A search for “friedson, andrew” returns 447 expenditures — all of them consistent with a normal campaign operation. The most recent filings appear in the 2026 Annual report, with the last entries dated January 2026: routine items including Gusto payroll processing, Switchboard campaign software, and small fundraiser expenses at Strosnider’s Hardware and Walgreens.
There are no expenditures dated in March or April 2026 — the dates that appear in the fabricated screenshot. There is no payment to Glenn Fellman. There is no payment to “Montgomery Fix / Montgomery Leak,” listed in the fake screenshot at $18,900. Maryland campaign finance law requires regular public disclosure of expenditures, and nothing in the public record supports a single line item from the screenshot Banerjee posted.
Friedson’s campaign manager, John Block, disputed the screenshot in an alleged text message to Banerjee — a detail Banerjee himself disclosed in his post, though he chose to interpret Block’s denial as a threat and publicly challenged the campaign to pursue criminal prosecution.
What Banerjee Posted
Rather than verify the screenshot before publishing — a step that would have taken under two minutes on a public government website — Banerjee posted it publicly and built an extended public accusation around it. He named Fellman by name with characterizations that could constitute defamation. He accused Friedson of orchestrating paid negative coverage. He invoked the State’s Attorney of Montgomery County, referenced a federal lawsuit he claims to have filed against that office in 2021, threatened criminal prosecution of Block, and stated that “Montgomery Prospective, Moderately MOCO & Bethesda Magazine also received money from Mr. Andrew Fredson.”
Banerjee spelled Friedson’s name as “Fredson” throughout the post.
Moderately MOCO, one of the outlets named in the accusation, told Banerjee directly that it had not received money from Friedson and disputed the screenshot. That denial also appears in Banerjee’s own post.
The Context
The five candidates competing for the Democratic nomination for Montgomery County Executive include Friedson, Banerjee, Evan Glass, Peter James, and Will Jawando — all of whom appeared at a candidates forum at Gaithersburg High School on May 3, the day after Banerjee’s post. Montgomery County is the wealthiest county in Maryland, and the race is among the most competitive local elections in the state this cycle.
Banerjee’s post drew 40 comments and generated enough attention to spread the accusation before it could be fact-checked. The screenshot itself has the appearance of a legitimate government portal — the Maryland SBE interface is rendered faithfully enough to pass casual inspection. The only visible flaw is the committee name.
That flaw was enough. A basic search of the public database — available at campaignfinance.maryland.gov — immediately surfaces the discrepancy. No payment to Fellman exists. No March 2026 expenditures exist. The screenshot is not a distortion of real data. It is fabricated.
A Note on Verification
Campaign finance records in Maryland are public and searchable. MDBayNews pulled the Friedson expenditure data directly from the Maryland State Board of Elections portal for this report. All expenditure records referenced are publicly available — even to Banerjee.
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