Former US Attorney Rachael Rollins resigned last year amid a DOJ investigation into alleged unethical conduct
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Rachael Rollins, the disgraced former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts nominated by President Biden, has had her law license suspended less than a year after resigning from her position amid a lengthy DOJ investigation, court documents show.
According to Massachusetts Appellate Court records, Rollins — who was paraded as a rising "national leader" after Biden nominated her for U.S. attorney — had her license to practice law in the state suspended effective Feb. 20 due to the nonpayment of registration fees.
Prior to the DOJ investigation that centered on her alleged unethical misconduct relating to political activities in favor of the Democrat Party, Rollins — the then-Suffolk County district attorney — was praised by liberal media outlets and Democrats in Congress over her approach to crime in the Boston area.
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Former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins (left) and President Biden (right). (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe, Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images)
"Rollins has been 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," The Los Angeles Times' editorial board wrote as it defended her from Republican criticism at the time.
"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," it added.
Massachusetts Democrat Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren described Rollins as "a great choice for U.S. Attorney," and that they were "proud to recommend her to the Biden administration."
"District Attorney Rollins is a national leader on transforming the criminal justice system and shifting away from an approach based on punishment and penalization to one that combats the root causes of injustice, whether it be poverty, substance use, or racial disparity," they said in a statement at the time.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on March 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
"She has prosecutorial experience, and is dedicated and committed to advancing equal justice for all, and we are certain that she will be a tremendous U.S. Attorney. We will work to make sure she is confirmed as quickly as possible," they added.
Rollins was ultimately confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate, but was later found by the DOJ to have unethically attended a partisan Biden fundraiser last summer and "falsely testified under oath" about leaking "sensitive DOJ" information to the press in an effort to help a Democrat win elected office.
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Details of Rollins' misconduct — highlighted in the DOJ's report released ahead of her resignation last May by Inspector General Michael Horowitz's office — showed that Rollins attempted to swing an election by assisting "Ricardo Arroyo with his Democratic primary campaign for Suffolk D.A."
Rollins, according to the report, went so far as to offer Arroyo advice on how to handle the sexual assault allegations levied against him during his campaign and also provided media outlets with "negative information" about his challenger, Kevin Hayden.
Then-United States Attorney Rachael Rollins, center, thanks the Color guard following the formal investiture ceremony for Rollins at the John Joseph Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, MA on April 22, 2022. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The DOJ also concluded that Rollins "falsely testified under oath during her OIG interview when she denied that she was the federal law enforcement source that provided nonpublic, sensitive DOJ information to the Herald reporter about a possible Hayden criminal investigation."
Rollins later admitted to being the source after she "produced relevant text messages, which definitively showed that Rollins had indeed been a source for the reporter and had disclosed to him the internal DOJ recusal memorandum quoted in the story," the report said.
The report also found that Rollins, despite ethics advice not to, attended a Biden fundraiser the year prior that included an appearance by first lady Jill Biden.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Rollins, Markey, Warren and The Los Angeles Times for comment.
Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on X at @BGillespieAL.
