Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Biden-Appointed US Attorney Repeatedly Tried To ‘Sabotage’ Campaign Of Political Candidate, Federal Watchdog Finds

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The U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins tried to “sabotage” another political candidate’s campaign, according to an Office of Special Counsel (OSC) report published on Wednesday.

The report found that Rollins violated the Hatch Act twice in 2022, abusing her power as U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, according to the report. She committed the first violation in July 2022 when she went to a “political party fundraiser in her official capacity,” and the second violation took place throughout August and September when she “repeatedly attempted to sabotage the campaign of a political candidate by leaking non-public U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) information to the media to plant a story that the candidate she opposed was facing a DOJ investigation.”

The report describes the second violation as “one of the most egregious Hatch Act violations that OSC has ever investigated.”

The Hatch Act prevents certain personnel from using their official authority or power to disrupt or impact the outcome of an election, according to the report. One example of this is using an official title or position while involved in “political activity.”

The report describes “political activity” as “activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party, partisan political group, or candidate for partisan political office and includes attending a political event.”

The investigation found that Rollins “interfer[ed] with or affect[ed]” the outcome of the election for district attorney (DA) of Suffolk County, Massachusetts in 2022. Specifically, Rollins leaked information regarding her office’s recusal from a possible Department of Justice investigation into the candidate she was opposing, DA Kevin Hayden.

Rollins was an active supporter and campaign adviser to Hayden’s opponent in the Democratic primary, Ricardo Arroyo, according to the report.

Throughout the campaign, Arroyo suggested to Rollins the possibility that her office announce an investigation into Hayden. It “[w]ould be the best thing I can have happen at this moment,” Arroyo wrote to Rollins, according to the report.

“Understood. Keep fighting and campaigning. I’m working on something,” Rollins wrote back minutes after.

Former Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich represents Rollins as her attorney, according to The Associated Press. Rollins is expected to turn in her official resignation to President Joe Biden before the end of the day on Friday.

Biden nominated Rollins, and she was confirmed in 2021 before being sworn into her role in 2022.

Bromwich did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.