Martin O'Malley is badly trailing in the polls behind Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, averaging less than 3 percent nationally. | Getty O'Malley under investigation for buying discounted governor's mansion furniture

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley is being investigated by the Anne Arundel County state's attorney for buying taxpayer-owned furniture from the Maryland governor's mansion at a steep discount, The Baltimore Sun reported on Thursday evening.

O'Malley, who is flailing in the primary race and barely made the cut for Sunday's debate, is pushing back against the investigation as a partisan exercise. "The fact that we're first hearing of this 'investigation' from the Baltimore Sun speaks to its seriousness," O'Malley campaign spokeswoman Haley Morris told POLITICO. "This is a bogus political attack that the Maryland Republicans have tried to make stick, and it's sad that they're wasting taxpayer resources on it."


It emerged last fall that O'Malley, who left office in January 2015, paid just $9,638 for furniture pieces that had cost taxpayers $62,000 but that O'Malley administration officials later classified as "junk." The furniture items included beds, chairs, desks, lamps and ottomans, and many of the pieces were moved into O'Malley's private residence.

Heather Epkins, communications director for Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Wes Adams, told The Sun that the office had a legal obligation to investigate the situation, which was uncovered by the Baltimore newspaper. "Our office performs due diligence on any complaint given to us," Epkins said. "We don't have the option of picking and choosing."

The newspaper had reported that Maryland's Department of General Services approved the sale to O'Malley despite a policy prohibiting private sales of state property to government officials. However, the Maryland State Ethics Commission declined to open an inquiry into the matter.

O'Malley is badly trailing in the polls behind Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, averaging less than 3 percent nationally.