The Biden Department of Justice declined to prosecute disgraced George Soros-backed U.S. attorney Rachael Rollins after its own inspector general recommended it do so, according to the watchdog’s report.
The Office of the Inspector General on Wednesday released a 155-page report that detailed Rollins’s numerous ethical violations. Nestled in a footnote, the inspector general revealed that the Justice Department ignored its suggestion to prosecute Rollins on charges of lying to federal investigators. The inspector general found that Rollins gave several false statements to its investigators during a December 2022 interview, a federal offense that is punishable by up to five years in prison.
It is unclear why the Justice Department declined to bring charges against Rollins, who resigned just hours before the inspector general released its report. But it isn’t the first time the Massachusetts prosecutor safely navigated a controversy.
The Senate voted to confirm Rollins along party lines in 2021, thanks in a large part to the efforts of her home-state allies, Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren. Republicans slammed Rollins for her record as a district attorney in Boston, which included her office’s policy of not prosecuting a litany of offenses, as reasons why she was unfit for a promotion.
“Rollins’s record was clear at the time. She thought the rules didn’t apply to her enforcement as a weapon against anyone who questioned her, and any criticism of her record was racist,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) said Thursday. “My colleagues ignored those red flags and every Democrat voted in lockstep for her.”
The Justice Department’s investigation into Rollins began over questions of whether she violated federal campaign law after she attended a 2021 Democratic Party fundraiser hosted by First Lady Jill Biden. Rollins said she received “approval” from her DOJ superiors to appear at the event, although the inspector general concluded that she had in fact received “contrary” advice.
But the initial investigation into Rollins expanded into whether she leaked sensitive information to the press about her political rival, then-interim Suffolk County district attorney Kevin Hayden. The investigators concluded that she had, and she also made false statements when questioned under oath about the incident.
“We found that she willfully made the false denial to the [Office of the Inspector General] for the purpose of concealing her actions,” the report states. “Ultimately, we found that Rollins violated Section 1001(a) by knowingly and willfully making materially false statements to the [Office of the Inspector General].”
Rollins also “solicited 30 free tickets from the Boston Celtics for local youth basketball players to attend a Celtics game, accepted 2 tickets for herself, and used a subordinate employee to help coordinate the event,” against advice from the Justice Department, according to the report.
“Rollins’s conduct … fell short of the standards of professionalism and judgment that the [Department of Justice] should expect of any employee, much less a U.S. Attorney,” the inspector general wrote in its report.
During her confirmation in 2021, Rollins faced criticism over her conduct in an incident where she, then a district attorney, threatened to issue a traffic ticket to a driver she claimed cut her off in a parking lot. Rollins then threatened legal action against a reporter who asked her about the incident.
“I’ll call the police on you and make an allegation and we’ll see how that works with you,” Rollins said to the reporter.
The inspector general’s report was sent to the Department of Justice, which could still file charges against Rollins. No Democrats have called for her prosecution.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
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