Biden-appointed US Attorney Resigns in Disgrace

Tom Cotton spotted the problems early but Biden persisted in putting identity and Leftist ideology over character.

When this is the sub-head in a New York Times story, no less, about a Biden appointee, you know things are at a low ebb:

Rachael S. Rollins, who plans to resign from her office in Boston, tried to aid a political ally, lied under oath and violated the Hatch Act, a pair of government watchdog reports found.

Oooooooooooooops.

The U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, Rachael S. Rollins, misused her office to boost a political ally, flouted ethics rules to obtain free tickets from the Boston Celtics and lied under oath to investigators, the Justice Department inspector general said on Wednesday.

The 161-page report — one of the most extraordinary public denunciations of a sitting federal prosecutor in recent memory — was released a day after Ms. Rollins announced she would resign at the end of this week, conceding that she had become a harmful “distraction” in one of the department’s most important offices.

This is one of those places where you need to be able to translate the lingo used in press releases of this sort. “Distraction” = “Embarrassment so florid that even the press can’t cover it up.” It’s the first cousin to the announcement by an incumbent office holder that he’s decided not to seek re-election “to spend more time with my family,” which actually means, “My internal polls show me 20 points behind.”

Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz opened an investigation into Ms. Rollins last year after a published report that she had attended a July 2022 Democratic National Committee fund-raiser headlined by Jill Biden, the first lady.

His team determined that those actions violated policies and laws against electioneering. But the inquiry rapidly expanded to encompass a striking range of apparent misconduct, including efforts to discredit a political rival and her acceptance of flights and a stay at a resort that were paid for by a sports and entertainment company, he said.

The department’s in-house watchdog “received multiple additional allegations concerning Rollins,” the inspector general’s staff wrote in the report. They included allegations of misuse of position, possible violations of gift rules and other department policies, the report said.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, another federal watchdog agency, released its own findings on Ms. Rollins shortly after the inspector general’s report came out, concluding that she had violated the Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by federal officials.

This line was particularly striking:

In a letter to President Biden, Henry Kerner, the special counsel, described her violations as among “the most egregious transgressions” he had ever investigated.

Mr. Horowitz said he was most alarmed by evidence that Ms. Rollins had secretly tipped off a Boston Herald reporter about a possible Justice Department investigation into one of the candidates then running to succeed her as Suffolk County district attorney, Kevin R. Hayden, to benefit a friend and ally, Ricardo Arroyo.

Ms. Rollins “brought her efforts to advance Arroyo’s candidacy” to her job as the top federal law enforcement official in Boston, investigators said.

She initially tried to persuade a senior aide to issue a letter suggesting the department was investigating Mr. Hayden for public corruption. When the person refused, she reached out to the newspaper in an unsuccessful effort to make her claims public before the election, investigators found.

This is because when you know you’re up to no good, the thing to do is to try to muscle a subordinate to do it so there will be someone else to blame when things head south.

How does a person like this get appointed to be the chief federal law enforcement officer in a major state? The NYT takes a complete pass on that question, but the answer emerges if you read far enough down the Politico article on Ms. Rollins:

Rollins was sworn in as the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts in January 2022.

Oh, OK. Diversity, dontcha know. But diversity was not her only attraction for the Biden Justice Department. There was the fact that she thought she had the authority effectively to repeal legislation imposing criminal prohibitions not to her taste. As Politico further notes:

Rollins’ progressive approach to law enforcement caught the eye of Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who recommended her to be the state’s top federal prosecutor. But Republicans tried to block Rollins’ ascension over her decline-to-prosecute list of 15 low-level crimes. Vice President Kamala Harris twice had to cast tie-breaking votes to keep her nomination moving forward.

Warren and Markey issued a statement after the announcement of her impending resignation: “Rachael Rollins has for years dedicated herself to the people of Massachusetts and equal justice under the law. We will respect her decision.”

Not that they actually respect it (as opposed to seeing that it’s unavoidable), and not that it’s “her decision,” either. It was either leave or get the boot, as Warren and Markey certainly know while pretending not to.

Finally but notably, the numerous problems with Ms. Rollins were known from the get-go because Tom Cotton took the time to research her background — an unusually diligent effort for a US Attorney nomination, which are typically rubber stamped. Cotton warned about Ms. Rollins starting as early as 2020 in speaking events at the Manhattan Institute and National Review. He was the first senator to announce his opposition to her nomination, which all Republicans ultimately opposed (N. B. When Sens. Romney and Murkowski join the opposition, that should have been a red flag if Biden’s people had cared. Sen. Murkowski in particular has a long history of deferring to Presidential picks regardless of party). Sen. Cotton detailed the evidence of Ms. Rollins’ unsuitability for office extensively and repeatedly, over 2021 and last year; delayed a vote on her nomination: and, after she was confirmed, encouraged the Department to open the investigation that quickly unearthed Ms. Rollins’ ethical challenges.