We previously discussed the controversy surrounding Rachael Rollins, the former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts nominated by President Biden who was implicated in alleged criminal and unethical conduct. The case presented a glaring contrast to how the Justice Department treats its own officials accused of crimes in comparison to less favored individuals. Now, Rollins has been stripped of her bar license based on the same conduct.
Rollins was a figure lionized by the media and many Democrats in Congress. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) heralded Rollins as the ideal U.S. Attorney. Despite her position in Massachusetts, Los Angeles Times’ editorial board dedicated a long editorial to proclaiming Rollins as
“among President Biden’s smartest appointments, and if her nomination is finally approved in the Senate she would become the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, handling cases involving national security, white-collar crime, public corruption, cybercrime, gang violence and civil rights violations. Biden’s nomination of Rollins, while hardly radical, represents a threat to the Republican narrative about Democrats and crime, as do Boston’s enviable crime stats … The point is that when GOP senators claim that Rollins’ policies increase crime, they’re just making things up to justify blocking one of the nation’s most successful criminal justice leaders.”
Rollins later resigned from office after investigators uncovered evidence that she had lied to them, a federal crime commonly charged against others.
The OIG released detailed findings against Rollins for allegedly seeking to influence a Suffolk County, Mass., district attorney election last year. She also was accused by the OIG of lying under oath during an investigation into the matter. The report states that “on December 16, 2022, pursuant to the Inspector General Act, 5 U.S.C. § 404(d), the OIG referred the false statements allegation to the Department for a prosecutive decision. On January 6, 2023, the Department informed the OIG that it declined prosecution.”
According to the OIG, Rollins sought to help Boston City Councilman Ricardo Arroyo in the Democratic primary for Suffolk’s district attorney by providing derogatory information to the Boston Globe and Boston Herald regarding his opponent, then-interim D.A. Kevin Hayden. The OIG said the information included “non-public, sensitive” DOJ material that Rollins acquired as a result of her federal position. The material suggested that Hayden was being investigated for public corruption.
The OIG further found that Rollins leaked more material after Arroyo lost to Hayden.
The OIG accused Rollins of violating a host of Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, including Section 2635.702 (the use “of public office for private gain”) and Section 2635.703 (the use “of nonpublic information”).
The most serious charge was that Rollins “falsely testified under oath … when she denied” providing the non-public information to the Herald reporter.
The investigation also found an array of other violations, including disregarding ethical warnings on political activities and soliciting expensive sports tickets.
What is most striking about the OIG report is that Rollins took some of these steps after barely being confirmed by the U.S. Senate because questions were raised over her judgment and partisanship. Rollins was confirmed in 2021 after Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote due to all 50 Republican senators opposing her nomination. Every Democratic senator voted for her despite the concerns, including a video from January 2021 in which she threatened the arrest of reporters.
The DOJ’s declination of charges follows a similar pattern that suggests a higher threshold standard applied by prosecutors in charging one of their own.
Conversely, this is the same department that pursued figures like Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn for false or misleading comments made to agents about a meeting with Russian diplomats. The media heralded that case, and legal experts clamored for prosecution.
With Rollins, after an investigation found that she lied to investigators, the DOJ refused to file any charges at all. It is unclear what the DOJ felt was lacking in those findings or the underlying evidence. However, as shown by prior declinations — in cases like the contempt referral against former Attorney General Eric Holder, or the determination that former FBI Director James Comey removed FBI material and, through a friend, leaked it to the media — the Justice Department often seems to find insurmountable problems when asked to charge a fellow prosecutor or investigator
The Rollins case showed a sense of total license to ignore criminal and ethical rules. She even was accused of giving Arroyo advice on how to handle the sexual assault allegations brought against him during his campaign and also provided media outlets with “negative information” about his challenger, Kevin Hayden. She was overtly political and used her office to advance favored candidates.
If the past is any indication, most of the media would not delve too deeply into such contradictions if Trump is charged. And selective prosecution complaints are notoriously difficult to litigate. Even if the Justice Department did not secure a favorable judge for such a case, most judges are leery of adjudicating claims of motivation and bias.
With the recent pass given President Joe Biden on his serial violation of mishandling classified material, the Rollins case reinforces the view of many that the Justice Department continues to apply our laws in strikingly different ways for similarly situated defendants. Ironically, the sense of license displayed by Rollins proved correct. When it comes to favored individuals, the blindfolds appear off at Justice.
The Unbalanced States of America.
-Cat
How can you expect any American to respect our laws and judgements when the legal classes of a certain party are so blatant in their favoritism and elitism. They have no respect for the people who work out there every day and strive to bring home the proverbial bacon and feed and shelter their families in a not so forgiving world. Especially since there is a party that does not give a damn for them and has, in truth, cast them aside because that party is now welcoming in another group of “suckers”, excuse me-immigrants, that they can bilk and make outrageous promises to just for their vote and will then cast them aside, also. The upper echelons of the Republican Party did the same but Trump and his populism has just about purged them from that party.
That is why he is so popular, because he appeals not to the peoples’ baser instincts but basically because he believes in America the way it used to be and could be again. We are not supposed to cast aside our people. We are supposed to help with first rate education, protected borders, fair trade that gives our people an edge and especially a competitive edge.
Why are the democrats so united? I suspect they know that if one or 2 more holes in their armor appears then the whole rotten mess will become exposed and crash.
Things are so bad that our president blasts Israel for defending itself from barbarians and wanting total victory (like we once did) and then turns around and gives the benefactor of those barbarians access to another 10 billion dollars. Could not the present administration figure out that when they took over and removed constraints on Iran, prostrated themselves in front of the Mullahs, then gave then more legitimacy that they castrated the revolutionaries trying to remove the Mullahs from power , empowered their terror apparatus and now we see a real rebirth of the Hezbullah, Hamas, the Houthi’s and terrorists in Iran and Syria and now they try to spread that poison worldwide.
This administration is blind, deaf and dumb and it all flows from that predecessor of Biden’s who lives in luxury on Martha’s Vinyeard. His is a life steeped in hate and destruction. He needs to exit the stage,
It is nice to have someone else admit that those in the Republican Party who tired to hold Trump accountable for his actions have been purged, and those who are left want to shield him from the legal process the rest of us are subject to. I agree that it would be nice if the Republican “law and order” philosophy was used consistently.
Cain’t nobody tell me what I gotta do!
In case anybody is interested, here is 105-page Special Prosecutor report on the brave and stunning Miss Rollins:
https://osc.gov/Documents/Hatch%20Act/Reports/Report%20of%20Prohibited%20Political%20Activity%2c%20Rachael%20Rollins%20%28HA-22-000173%29.pdf
If you do scan thru the report, Miss Rollins is the “green” text. There is an interesting text on page 43 of the report, about a law professor being involved. Laurence Tribe, I wonder??? Isn’t he from Mass???
Rollins lost her license for leaking confidential informative and lying about that and other matters? Has anyone heard of Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton , and ten million other Democrat politicians?
She was not disbarred. her license was suspended temporarily until she pays her bar dues. Yawn.
Why didn’t she pay her dues?
“. . . until she pays her bar dues.”
The only thing missing is: I didn’t pay my dues so that I can spend more time with my family.
Every day we see Biden fumble every decision, screw up every policy choice, default to the wrong conclusion and cater to the smallest and most radical groups. My question is who is advising him? Who said “nominate Rachel Rollins”? Who said sign 90 EOs opening the border? Who advised giving Iran billions (we already did see one “aid” being arrested for spying for Iran, but that story has disappeared and the DOJ is suddenly squeamish about being aggressive). Who said give a trillion for the “green economy”? Who said ban stoves? Who said spend until we choke on inflation? Who tells the puppet not to take questions?
I have a feeling that Jill, the moron with a fake PHD has more power than most think. This is a teacher’s union suck-up, a poseur with no brains or talent (the perfect spouse for the dimwitted president) and a woman that is feeling her oats for the first time ever because her “powerful” husband is senile and malleable.
The parallels with the Wilson administration are sickening. Fascist wannabe, hidden racist, megalomaniacal design on running the world, incompetently slipping into a world war and becoming so incapacitated that the wife has to run the show. The only difference is that Wilson really was an academic, at one time wasn’t a moron and was duly elected.
PS. Wilson wasn’t corrupt .Biden is like Wilson and Spiro Agnew combined.
Wow, I love all the angst about this. Sure pretty bad. She deserves what she gets. And the comments. All about all these bad left leaning or Biden associated or people working as DAs on trump cases. Some of the comments openly racist. Anyway.
How about the 17 lawyers working for trump that have been Sanctioned? How about the 4 lawyers working for trump that have plead guilty to crimes? How about all the lying the ex president trump committed while president and ever since? Thousands of lies. trump is a walking dumpster fire of problems for lawyers who attempt to defend him. How about trumps latest? He admits he took classified documents because they were his to take. JT and most of the people that comment here heap scorn on anything Biden related and then shrug off the same or worse behavior by the leader Dear mr trump. Cult much?
Why is it rasicst to expect a US Attorney not to engage in illegal partisan activity and abuse of power?
Why is it racist to expect a Black US Attorney to live up to the same legal and ethical standards as everyone else.
You rant about Trump attorney’s – NONE engaged in conduct this egregious.
Your own rant proves the blatant partisanship.
Even Micheal Cohen for all his egregious misconduct did not act under the color of law as Rollins did.
I would note 4 Trump lawyers plead guilty to NON-Crimes, received NON-sentences, in return for cooperating – which Resulted in Willis getting lots of exculpatory information.
But simply – Willis got a talking point, that is all.
Why has Willis not been charged ?
We now have multiple instances of misuse of public funds.
Multiple instance of lying under oath.
Multiple instances of lying in sworn court filings.
But then that is synonymous with “being a democrat” today.
You prove my point, thank you.
Justify what trump and his sycophants do, condemn to hell everything left leaning. Yep, makes sense to me.
It ain’t racist if it is true. It’s just sad.
Just another day here in Doublestandardstan.
How easy is it to refer other prosecutors and justices to the OIG? It’s difficult to not draw comparisons to current officials that are in the news. Letitia, Fani and Nathan come to mind.
Can anyone tell me what the following have in common?
Rachel Rollins
Fani Willis
Letitia James
@jim22 – you forgot Chutkan.
Well for one thing they are obese. But in the new world order obese is healthy.
But in the new world order obese is healthy.
I think the new world order is schizophrenic: (a) obese is healthy, (b) people should only eat bugs. WTF?
🤫 Eastern Time Zone?
Tools of The Blob?
They all own machetes. That’s how things get done in Rwanda.
The Left is taking the whole of North America into a Thucydides Trap. This level of madness can’t end well.
Jim22 and his thread: Stop and think about all the prosecutors leading the cases against Trump: Alvin Braggs, Letitia James, Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, Tanya Chutkan, and Jack Smith. Five out of six are Black; one (Smith) is White. The percentage of Black lawyers and judges as a whole is the complete reverse: roughly one in five or six. What were or are the chances of that happening?
Can anyone tell me what the following have in common?
Rachel Rollins
Fani Willis
Letitia James
Black and ignorant.
Remember that if you’re a private side employee that you are footing the bill for all of them. In today’s world you pay off your property only to pay taxes far more than a mortgage to live in what you own. It’s out of control and time for us to right the ship. They squander our tax dollars putting us further behind as they get richer. They give illegals more taxpayer money and services than a combat veteran or their families that gave all. It is wrong!
I guess i can understand why Judges and DA’s are elected possitions but
no unerstand how or why they run as members of a party ?
It seems the last ones you would want in society to have pledged allegiance to a letter, would be judges quickly followed by DA’s…
Jon, there must be more that can be done to root out these, at the minimum, “appearances of impropriety.” Our judiciary reeks of rot and it only gets worse daily. This must end, now. Tell us, what can be done?
Rachel Rollins just got a $96,000/year job at Roxbury Community College!! Outrageous! The left has no sense of decency and they are happy to rub it in your face.
And
We’re always outraged by street crimes but has anyone noticed the number of times attorneys are engaged in abhorrent behavior? MS-13 with a law degree.
Ken Larsen said: “has anyone noticed the number of times attorneys are engaged in abhorrent behavior?”
It’s not really very surprising. First, lawyers have a much more intimate grasp of how the legal machinery works than the rest of us, which creates opportunity for abuse. Second, lawyers are conditioned to be morally agnostic in their professional activities. Otherwise, someone like a child rapist-murderer could never have representation adequate for a fair trial (extreme example, but same principle applies elsewhere). It must take a tremendous amount of self-discipline to keep that amoral attitude confined to professional practice. Clearly some lawyers are not capable of accomplishing that. Since self-discipline ceased to be a popular attribute quite some time ago, the situation is likely only going to worsen.
Fraudster lizzy warren: “among President Biden’s smartest appointments” – that part may still be true.
“Among Biden’s smartest appointments” is like “that was one of Edward Smith’s (the captain of the Titanic) best cruises”.
Proves once again that Democrats politicize the DOJ whenever they can!
“The Department of Just Us.”
George Orwell said it best, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
With respect, her license was suspended for failure to pay fees. Nothing to do with ethics.
@Terry
While that’s a stretch to a tip of an iceberg, not paying fees would be unethical, would it not?
Not really. Some people just forget to pay them. She should have been disbarred for being a lying conniver.
She didn’t bother to pay her fees because she knew that it was already a lost cause.