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U.S. Attorney Rachel Rollins is resigning her position following the release of a damning investigative report from the Justice Department’s inspector general.
A report from the White House Office of Special Counsel to President Joe Biden noted that the DOJ’s watchdog detailed “Hatch Act violations.”
“OSC has concluded that Ms. Rollins violated the Hatch Act by (1) leaking non‐public U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) information so that news outlets would report that a political candidate she opposed was facing a potential DOJ investigation, and (2) attending a Democratic National Committee fundraiser while on duty, in her official capacity, and using a government‐owned vehicle,” the letter said.
Rollins attended the DNC fundraiser featuring first lady Jill Biden on July 14, 2022, despite receiving explicit advice from the staff of the Massachusetts United States Attorney’s Office (MA USAO), the DOJ’s IG noted.
According to the report, Rollins had previously agreed to a plan in which she would meet with Biden outside the event and refrain from entering the residence where the fundraiser was being held. Instead, she actively interacted with attendees, joined the receiving line to meet Biden, and even took part in photo opportunities alongside event hosts, guests, and a U.S. Senator, the IG’s office found.
In addition, the report added that the U.S. attorney attempted to shift blame onto her staff, stating, “Rollins’s efforts to blame her staff for her own ethics failures [are] deeply disturbing and contrary to her own independent responsibility as U.S. Attorney to hold herself to a high ethical standard and exercise sound judgment.”
WATCH: Biden pick and US Attorney for Massachusetts Rachel Rollins has a meltdown.
pic.twitter.com/Mwv29Hpu5J— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 16, 2023
A doozy of a DOJ IG report into MA US Attorney Rachel Rollins, who resigned yesterday. (h/t @kyledcheney)
She got in hot water for attending a fundraiser for DOCTOR Jill Biden: pic.twitter.com/EZI5dCnTd5
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) May 17, 2023
Before becoming a U.S. attorney, Rollins was the George Soros-backed district attorney of Suffolk County, Mass.
The OIG’s report added:
During the course of our investigation, the OIG received multiple additional allegations concerning Rollins, some relating to other alleged political activities and some relating to possible violations of the federal gift rules, the government’s travel regulations, misuse of position, noncompliance with recusal decisions, and noncompliance with other Department policies. The most concerning was an allegation that Rollins secretly disclosed sensitive, non-public DOJ information to the Boston Herald about a potential DOJ investigation she and her office were recused from and that she may have done so for political purposes in relation to an upcoming local election.
Specifically, the OIG received information that Rollins may have used her position as U.S. Attorney to disclose non-public, sensitive DOJ information to a Herald reporter about a potential DOJ investigation of then Interim Suffolk County District Attorney (Suffolk D.A.) Kevin Hayden before the September 6, 2022 Democratic primary election for Suffolk D.A., in which Hayden was a candidate, and that Rollins may have done so to ensure that her desired candidate, Ricardo Arroyo, defeated Hayden in the primary. Before becoming the U.S. Attorney on January 10, 2022, Rollins was serving the last year of her 4-year term as Suffolk D.A.; therefore, the outcome of the September 6, 2022 primary election and November 8, 2022 general election would choose her successor as Suffolk D.A.
We also received information alleging that Rollins: (1) as U.S. Attorney, solicited 30 free tickets from the Boston Celtics for local youth basketball players to attend a Celtics game, accepted 2 tickets for herself, and used a subordinate employee to help coordinate the event, contrary to ethics advice; (2) accepted non-federal payment of travel expenses on two separate occasions without advance authorization and without advising her office of both the true purpose of her travel or her intention to accept non-federal payment of certain expenses; (3) called a live local radio show and discussed a MA USAO criminal case from which she was recused; (4) participated with federal, state, and local elected officials from one political party in a press conference in response to the public reporting of a draft opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; (5) routinely used her personal cell phone to send text messages to her staff, including on matters relating to official DOJ business; and (6) continued to accept donations to her Suffolk D.A. campaign account after she was sworn in as U.S. Attorney.
