US attorney for Massachusetts to step down after ethics investigation
Rachael Rollins, the US attorney for Massachusetts, will resign after a months-long ethics investigation by the justice department inspector general into her appearance at a political fundraiser and other issues, her attorney said on Tuesday.
The federal watchdog has yet to release its report but an attorney for Rollins said she would submit a letter of resignation to Joe Biden by close of business on Friday.
“Rachael has been profoundly honored to serve as US attorney over the past 16 months and is incredibly proud of all her office has accomplished during that limited time, especially in the areas of gun violence and civil rights,” her attorney, Michael Bromwich, a former justice department inspector general, said in a statement.
“She is optimistic that the important work she started will continue but understands that her presence has become a distraction. The work of the office and the Department of Justice is far too important to be overshadowed by anything else.”
The resignation of a US attorney amid ethics concerns is an exceedingly rare phenomenon and is especially notable for a department that under the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has sought to restore a sense of normalcy after the turbulent Trump administration.
Rollins was sworn in as Massachusetts’s top federal law enforcement
officer in January 2022, after being district attorney for Boston and surrounding communities.
She was praised by progressives before she was elevated to the US attorney job despite stiff Republican opposition. The vice-president, Kamala Harris, twice had to cast a tie-breaking vote for her nomination to move forward.
The Associated Press was the first to report in November that the inspector general had opened an investigation over Rollins’s appearance last year at a Democratic fundraiser featuring the first lady, Jill Biden.
Sources said the investigation expanded into other areas, including use of a personal cellphone to conduct justice department business and a trip to California paid for by an outside group.
Last July, Rollins was photographed arriving at a home in Andover, Massachusetts, where the fundraiser with Jill Biden was held.
The inspector general generally investigates allegations of fraud, abuse or violations of other policies.
Rollins said in a tweet she “had approval” to meet the first lady and left the event early. One person told the AP that Rollins was only given permission to meet Jill Biden outside the home. Rollins acknowledged the investigation in a December meeting with reporters, saying she did not want her office to be “distracted”.
“I certainly think any time there’s an investigation into anyone – and I’ve been the chief law enforcement officer in two different roles – it impacts you for sure,” Rollins said.
The US Office of Special Counsel, another federal watchdog, has been investigating whether Rollins’s attendance at the fundraiser violated the Hatch Act, which limits political activity by government workers. The status of that investigation is unclear.
The inspector general’s office copied the phone contents of some employees in Rollins’s office as part of the investigation into possible use of her personal phone for federal business, a source said last year.
The inspector general examined a trip to California that was paid for by an outside group: justice department employees are not supposed to accept payment for travel. The trip was for CAA Amplify, an annual gathering of entertainment, business and political figures run by the Creative Artists Agency.
As district attorney for Suffolk county, Rollins pushed for ambitious criminal justice changes, most notably a policy not to prosecute certain lowlevel crimes such as shoplifting.
In 2021, after she was nominated to be Massachusetts’s top federal law enforcement officer, Republicans painted her as a radical.
The Senate judiciary committee deadlocked before she was confirmed by the full Senate in a 51-50 vote, with Vice-President Harris casting the tiebreaking vote.