United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Rachael Rollins.
Jessica Rinaldi | Boston Globe | Getty Images
The highest federal prosecutor in Massachusetts will submit her resignation by the tip of the week to President Joe Biden, her lawyer said Wednesday, after damning official reports found she had committed serious ethical misconduct.
The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog began a probe last 12 months after U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins attended a Democratic fundraiser last July featuring first lady Jill Biden, despite advice that this may violate ethics guidelines.
“We found Rollins’s conduct described throughout this report violated federal regulations, quite a few DOJ policies, her Ethics Agreement, and applicable law, and fell far in need of the standards of professionalism and judgment that the Department should expect of any worker, much less a U.S. Attorney,” the DOJ Inspector General’s Office said in its report.
That 161-page report found Rollins, who was appointed by President Biden, used her official position to attempt to help the election effort of a fellow Democrat for the Suffolk County district attorney position.
Rollins gave journalists non-public, sensitive DOJ information “to create the impression publicly, before the first election, that DOJ was or can be investigating (his opponent) for public corruption,” in accordance with the IG’s office.
The report found that Rollins lied under oath about that effort when asked about it by investigators.
“Rollins only admitted to being the source during subsequent testimony after Rollins produced relevant text messages, which definitively showed that Rollins had indeed been a source for the reporter and had disclosed to him the inner DOJ recusal memorandum quoted within the story, ” the report said.
The alleged mislead investigators raises the chance Rollins could possibly be criminally prosecuted.
The report moreover found that Rollins violated ethics guidelines by accepting free tickets to a Boston Celtics basketball game.
“Finally, we found that Rollins continued to just accept political contributions to her Suffolk D.A. campaign account after she was sworn in as U.S. Attorney,” the report said.
“Since the contributions described on this section potentially implicate the Hatch Act, now we have referred our factual findings to [Office of Special Counsel] for its review and handling,” it added. The Hatch Act says that any worker of the manager branch of the federal government may not solicit or accept political contributions.
A separate but related report into Rollins by the Office of Special Counsel said that her multiple acts of misconduct “are amongst essentially the most egregious transgressions” of the Hatch Act ever investigated by the office. The act bars covered federal employees from using their official office to affect an election.
“That is to announce that Rachael Rollins, america Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, has decided to resign her position as United States Attorney. She might be submitting a letter of resignation to President Biden by close of business on Friday,” Rollins’ lawyer, Michael Bromwich, said in an announcement.
“Rachael has been profoundly honored to function U.S. Attorney over the past 16 months and is incredibly pleased with all her office has achieved during that limited time, especially within the areas of gun violence and civil rights,” Bromwich said.
“After the dust settles and he or she resigns, Rachael will make herself available to reply questions. Until then, she reminds the general public of the vitally essential work the office does and thanks her colleagues for his or her service to the Commonwealth and our Nation,” Bromwich said.
Biden nominated Rollins for the role in July 2021. After months of delays, the Senate confirmed her in December of that 12 months because of a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Unwell., in an announcement said, “