U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, Rachael Rollins, to Resign Amid Investigation into Conduct

0
131
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins, with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and acting Boston Police Commissioner Gregory Long, speaks to reporters about the march through Boston by supporters of the white nationalist group Patriot Front during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., July 5, 2022. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, Rachael Rollins, announced on May 17th that she will resign, a day before the release of an inquiry into her conduct in office by the Justice Department watchdog. The investigation initially focused on her decision to attend a Democratic National Committee event featuring Dr. Jill Biden and later expanded to include her use of a personal cellphone to conduct department business. Rollins was the first Black woman in Massachusetts appointed to one of the country’s marquee prosecutorial posts.

Rollins was confirmed by the Senate in December 2021 after a bitter fight in which Vice President Harris cast the tiebreaking vote. She supported a different approach to criminal justice during her tenure as district attorney for the county that includes Boston, which included sharp reductions in penalties for shoplifting, property crimes, drug possession, and driving offenses.

However, conservatives accused Rollins of ignoring the rise in violent crime and all 50 Senate Republicans opposed her nomination when it came to a vote in late 2021. After Rollins appeared at the Democratic fund-raiser last July, Senator Tom Cotton demanded an investigation, which led to an inquiry by the Department of Justice watchdog.

Rollins plans to submit her resignation to the White House on May 20th, according to her lawyer, Michael R. Bromwich. Bromwich said that Rollins’s “presence has become a distraction” to federal prosecutors in her office and that the “work of the office and the Department of Justice is far too important to be overshadowed by anything else.”

Rollins departs as her office tackles one of its highest-profile cases in recent years: the investigation into the leak of classified national security documents by Airman Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman assigned to an intelligence wing at a base in Cape Cod. Rollins and her aides have been debating with officials at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington where the case against Teixeira should unfold. Officials at the headquarters have pressed for it to be moved from Massachusetts to Northern Virginia, where prosecutors have greater experience in pursuing national security cases.

The Office of Special Counsel, another federal watchdog, has also been investigating whether Rollins’s attendance at the fund-raiser in Andover, Mass., last July violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits electioneering by federal officials.

In conclusion, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, Rachael Rollins, is resigning amid an investigation into her conduct in office. Her resignation comes after an inquiry by the Justice Department watchdog, which initially focused on her decision to attend a Democratic National Committee event featuring Dr. Jill Biden and later expanded to include her use of a personal cellphone to conduct department business. Rollins was the first Black woman in Massachusetts appointed to one of the country’s marquee prosecutorial posts and had supported a different approach to criminal justice during her tenure.