Rachael Rollins resigns as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts in wake of scathing DOJ reports [+see letter] (2024)

The whirlwind week has ended with a thud for Rachael Rollins.

The once-rising star of the progressive ranks has resigned as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts after being scorched in two separate federal reports, according to a statement from her former office.

The feds go on to say that First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy has assumed the role of Acting U.S. Attorney, “in accordance with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.”

Levy, according to the statement, became First Assistant in January of last year following 25 years of legal experience, including previous experience in the U.S. Attorney’s office when he served as a prosecutor in the Criminal Division’s Economic Crimes Unit office from 1997 to 2004.

“There, he prosecuted a wide range of white-collar crimes including health care fraud, securities and investor fraud, terrorism financing and environmental crimes,” according to the statement.

The optics of the office were already changing before the resignation had been submitted, as Rollins was nowhere to be seen Friday for the detention hearing of Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman charged with leaking highly sensitive military secrets.

It’s a high-profile case with national scope and attention, and Rollins was there for the last hearing on April 27. On Friday, she was not, but Levy was.

Rollins’ downfall all started in July when a Herald reporter asked her if it was a violation of the Hatch Act to keep walking into a DNC fundraiser in Andover to see First Lady Jill Biden. The act is an ethical roadmap for top federal employees.

Rollins told the Herald, “No.”

The Department of Justice, now her former employer, disagreed. Two scathing reports out of the DOJ this week declared Rollins crossed the line and faced further discipline if she did not promptly quit.

Rollins wrote in her resignation letter to President Bidenthat it was an “honor” to serve — even if for a short time.

“This letter is to advise you that I am resigning from my position as United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, effective at the close of business today,” she wrote in the letter shared with the Herald by her attorney Michael Bromwich.

“Thank you for the honor of nominating me for that position in July 2021 and supporting me during my contentious confirmation process. I wish you and your Administration the best of luck in the months and years ahead.”

On Dec. 8, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote for Senate confirmation of Rollins’ appointment.

But those early high hopes have crumbled as a DOJ probe revealed Rollins attempted to tip the scales of the Suffolk DA’s race by leaking intel to the Boston Globe and the Herald — with this paper holding off any use of the dimes she was dropping until after the primary election.

That is a point the DOJ repeats in both a report by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and a separate summary by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

Those reports, with the OSC report sent to President Biden, outline a series of ethical sins Rollins committed — from pushing for free Celtics tickets to promoting her favored DA candidate Ricardo Arroyo over DA Kevin Hayden, who won the primary and faced no opposition in the general election.

The IG report also states, in Footnote 78 on Page 109-110, that the DOJ had “concerns” about Rollins’ social media posts and banning a journalist from following her.

“Rollins’s decision to block a Herald reporter from accessing her social media account that she used at least on occasion for MA USAO and DOJ-related business — including following the reporter’s coverage of her activities at the Andover fundraiser, activities that raised significant questions regarding her conduct as U.S. Attorney and compliance with DOJ policies and the Hatch Act — could have resulted in a First Amendment challenge to her action,” the IG states.

The lead Herald reporter in this story is still blocked from the @DARollins Twitter account the DOJ said is public because she used it to comment on official actions — in apparent violation of agency rules.

“Employees should not engage in official Department business on personal social media pages,” the IG report a deputy attorney general as stating in department guidance to staffers. Rollins, they add, did not abide.

Case law on the matter is then cited, in detail, to back up that opinion. Still, Rollins is quoted as telling the IG: “She said she used her Twitter account because she was rebutting an
article that made statements about her personally, and she wanted it known that she “had
approval to be there” and that she went to two community events afterward.”

The IG added: “She did not have any concerns about blocking a reporter from her Twitter account because she considered the account to be personal.”

She did not allude to any of that in her resignation.

Rachael Rollins’ resignation letter