A Soros-backed U.S. Attorney is planning to resign after the Department of Justice Inspector General’s office found that she egregiously violated the Hatch Act in “an extraordinary breach of public trust by a senior government official.” The Hatch Act is a U.S. federal law that limits the political activities of federal employees.
On Wednesday, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s office released a “blistering” 161-page report accusing Rachael Rollins, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, of numerous ethics violations, including falsely testifying under oath” about leaking “sensitive DOJ” information to the press.
In what the Boston Globe called a “historic move,” Joe Biden nominated Rollins in July of 2021 to be “the first Black woman in state history to lead federal law enforcement.”
Rollins was confirmed in the U.S. Senate along party lines following a contentious hearing in December 2021. Republicans opposed her confirmation as the Bay State’s top prosecutor on the grounds that she refused to prosecute crimes such as drug dealing, theft, and property destruction while she was the district attorney Suffolk County. While she was the DA, she also worked closely with a “defund the police” group, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
After she vacated her post to become US Attorney, Rollins attempted to influence the Suffolk County DA election by helping fellow Democrat Ricardo Arroyo with his primary campaign, according to Special Counsel Henry Kerner’s report.
Rollins allegedly went so far as to offer Arroyo advice on how to handle sexual assault allegations made against him during his campaign and also gave media outlets “negative information” about his challenger, Kevin Hayden.
“Rollins’s efforts to advance Arroyo’s candidacy included providing negative information about Hayden to The Boston Globe and suggesting where the Globe could look to find more information,” the report stated. “The evidence demonstrated that at a critical stage of the primary race, Rollins brought her efforts to advance Arroyo’s candidacy to the MA USAO, when she used her position as U.S. Attorney, and information available to her as U.S. Attorney, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to create the impression publicly, before the primary election, that DOJ was or would be investigating Hayden for public corruption.”
After Hayden won the election, Rollins messaged Arroyo, saying [Hayden] “will regret the day he did this to you. Watch.”
The report found that Rollins’ leak of damaging information targeting Hayden “was an extraordinary breach of public trust by a senior government official, which threatens to erode confidence in the integrity of federal law enforcement actions” and called the violation among “the most egregious Hatch Act violations” the Office of Special Counsel has ever investigated.
Rollins is also accused of attending a political fundraiser in a government-owned vehicle while working in her official capacity. According to the report, Rollins attended a Democratic National Committee (DNC) event featuring Jill Biden in a Boston suburb.
Additionally, the inspector general’s report alleges that Rollins solicited and accepted 30 free tickets to a Boston Celtics game, and attended “an Invitation-Only Summit in California” in which a
California-based sports and entertainment agency paid for her travel, lodging, and meals.
Rollins’ misconduct was exacerbated by her efforts to mislead Justice Department investigators during interviews, according to the report.
“When the OIG first questioned her under oath on these topics on December 6, she denied being the Herald Reporter’s source for his September 11 article, stated that she did not know or have any suspicion about who the source was, and declined to answer whether she gave the Herald Reporter the Recusal Memorandum,” the report states.
In December of 2021, Joe Biden’s new US Attorney Rollins made headlines after she threatened to issue a traffic citation to a motorist who she claimed cut her off in traffic.
When a reporter asked her about the alleged “road rage” incident, Rollins reportedly threatened to call the police.
“I’ll call the police on you and make an allegation and we’ll see how that works with you,” Rollins said. The attorney general’s office and a state ethics commission eventually cleared her of any wrongdoing in that incident.
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