Re: A corrupt 'progressive reformer' goes down in flames

[Eric Holder]

On 09 Oct 2021, AlleyCat <alleycat...@trump.org> posted some
news:sjse6l$qn5$4...@news.dns-netz.com:

> Niggers are unqualified to be anything but niggers.

A CORRUPT 'PROGRESSIVE REFORMER' GOES DOWN IN FLAMES. Back in 2021,
President Joe Biden fought hard to win Senate confirmation for Rachael
Rollins to become the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts. Rollins was the
district attorney of Suffolk County, which includes Boston, and she had
become notorious by pledging not to prosecute many crimes. Early in her
term, she published the "Rollins Memo" that listed 15 crimes in which the
"default is to decline prosecuting" — that is, in which her office would
not allow its attorneys to prosecute unless a supervisor gave special
permission.

Here is the list: 1) Trespassing, 2) shoplifting, 3) larceny under $250,
4) disorderly conduct, 5) disturbing the peace, 6) receiving stolen
property, 7) minor driving offenses, including operating with a suspended
or revoked license, 8) breaking and entering into vacant property, 9)
wanton or malicious destruction of property, 10) threats excluding
domestic violence, 11) minors in possession of alcohol, 12) drug
possession, 13) drug possession with intent to distribute, 14) resisting
arrest when the only charge is resisting arrest, and 15) resisting arrest
if other charges are on the list of nonprosecutable offenses.

It was a recipe for urban disorder, all done in the name of criminal
justice reform and addressing "structural racism" in the criminal justice
system. But supporters, and many in the media, praised the "historic"
nature of Rollins's arrival as district attorney. She was, the stories
noted, the first black woman to serve in the job. Coming in, she promised
to "move now to make sure that overwhelmingly black and brown men aren't
disproportionately impacted by the criminal legal system." The no-
prosecute crime list was part of that effort.

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Rollins's definition of justice seemed more in line with liberal politics
than with justice. Indeed, a page on the Suffolk County District
Attorney's Office website was headlined, "Meet Rachael Rollins, Suffolk
County's Progressive Reformer District Attorney."

The results were predictable. "In 2020, the first full year in which her
policies were in force, Boston's violent crime rate surged, drug overdoses
in Suffolk County rose, and murders skyrocketed by 38%," wrote Sen. Tom
Cotton (R-AR), who led GOP opposition to Rollins's nomination in the
Senate.

On the other hand, Biden was so impressed with Rollins's performance that
he nominated her to be the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. The White
House praised Rollins as a "historic first," the first black woman to be
nominated as U.S. attorney for the state.

And then the trouble began. Most U.S. attorney nominations are so
noncontroversial that they sail through the Senate. They begin in the
Judiciary Committee, where they are routinely unanimously confirmed by a
voice vote. But Republicans saw Rollins, the district attorney who
promised not to prosecute criminals, as a threat to the rule of law.
Rollins, they resolved, would not roll through the confirmation process
without opposition.

"Republicans have allowed President Biden's other 15 U.S. attorney
nominees across the country to go through committee with a simple voice
vote," Cotton noted in a floor speech in December 2021. "We rarely have
record votes on U.S. attorneys in the Senate. In fact, I think it's been
28 years. It's also true that Rachael Rollins is so radical that she is
without precedent as a nominee to be U.S. attorney."

So for the first time in 28 years, the Judiciary Committee held a roll-
call vote for a U.S. Attorney nominee. The result was an 11-to-11 tie.
Rollins's nomination then moved on to a final vote in the full Senate. At
the time, the Senate was evenly divided, 50-50, but Democrats controlled
because the White House was in Democratic hands and Vice President Kamala
Harris could break ties in the party's favor. That is what happened with
Rollins. Her final confirmation vote was a 50-50 party-line tie. Harris
then broke the tie for confirmation, and Rollins became U.S. Attorney on a
51-50 vote.

Republicans warned Democrats that they were buying trouble. "This is a
vote you are going to regret," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said to Democrats.
Now, Cruz's words have come true.

On May 19, after just one year and four months in office, Rollins resigned
when two investigations, one by the Justice Department Office of Inspector
General and the other by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, outlined
extensive misconduct. Basically, the reports showed that Rollins abused
her power for political purposes in the supposedly nonpolitical position
of U.S. attorney.

Rollins wanted to influence the election for who would succeed her as
district attorney in Suffolk County. The Democratic primary for the job —
the winner would run unopposed in the general election — featured two
candidates, Ricardo Arroyo and Rollins's interim successor, Kevin Hayden.
Rollins supported Arroyo. According to the inspector general report,
Rollins tried to smear Hayden, first by leaking false information about
him to the press and then by leaking secret Justice Department documents.

The inspector general report said Rollins assisted Ricardo Arroyo with his
Democratic primary campaign for Suffolk D.A., providing him campaign
advice and direction and coordinating with Arroyo on activities to help
his campaign. Rollins's efforts to advance Arroyo's candidacy included
providing negative information about Hayden to The Boston Globe and
suggesting where the Globe would look to find more information. The
evidence demonstrated that at a critical stage of the primary race,
Rollins ... used her position as U.S. Attorney, and information available
to her as U.S. Attorney, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to create
the impression publicly, before the primary election, that the Justice
Department was or would be investigating Hayden for public corruption.
These efforts included, but were not limited to, Rollins trying
unsuccessfully to convince her First Assistant U.S. Attorney to issue a
letter that would have created the impression that DOJ was investigating
Hayden and, when that effort failed, disclosing non-public, sensitive DOJ
information directly to a Herald reporter before the primary election.
Then, after the Herald did not publish the story before the primary
election and Arroyo lost to Hayden, Rollins disclosed additional
information to the Herald to damage Hayden's reputation while he was an
uncontested candidate in the general election.

The report went on to say that Rollins later "falsely testified under oath
during her inspector general interview when she denied that she was the
federal law enforcement source that provided non-public, sensitive DOJ
information to the Herald reporter." Text messages proved that it was her.
Investigators also concluded that Rollins "lacked candor" when she
testified about other aspects of the matter.

Serious as that was, it was not Rollins's only problem. The inspector
general also looked into Rollins's attendance at a July 14, 2022,
Democratic Party fundraiser featuring first lady Jill Biden. When Rollins
received an invitation to the event, staff in the U.S. Attorney's Office
were surprised. It was not the practice for U.S. attorneys even to be
invited to such political events. But Rollins wanted to go. Her staff and
ethics advisers told her repeatedly that she should not attend. But
Rollins insisted.

Finally, they came up with a plan in which Rollins would go to the home
where the fundraiser was being held and meet Biden outside before the
event began. That way, Rollins could say she did not attend the
fundraiser. A legal counsel advised Rollins not to go inside and not to
"provide remarks of any kind, or discuss policy or legislation on July
14." The bottom line, the adviser said, was that Rollins would be allowed
"to meet the first lady and then leave."

Rollins went to the fundraiser in a government car. Then she went into the
house. She talked to other guests. She moved to the front of a receiving
line to meet Jill Biden. Then she talked to more guests, including Sen. Ed
Markey (D-MA). After about 20 minutes, she got back into the government
car and left. In other words, she attended the fundraiser in precisely the
way her advisers had warned against.

When the Boston Herald reported Rollins's attendance, she falsely claimed
that she had permission to go to the fundraiser. This is what the
inspector general concluded:

Rollins attended a partisan political fundraiser without approval from the
Deputy Attorney General, or her designee, as required by Department
policy, and her attendance was contrary to the ethics advice she received
before the event that gave permission for Rollins to meet and greet with
Dr. Biden separately from the fundraiser but did not include approval ...
to attend the fundraiser herself. We also found Rollins's efforts to blame
her staff for her own ethics failures deeply disturbing and contrary to
her own independent responsibility as U.S. Attorney to hold herself to a
high ethical standard and exercise sound judgment.

Investigators found lots of other ethics violations, including Rollins
accepting two free tickets, valued at $350 each, to a Boston Celtics
basketball game and accepting $2,000 in travel expenses from a California
sports and entertainment company.

When the investigators' reports came out, Rollins had no option but to
resign. She claimed she was doing so because she had become a
"distraction" to the work of the U.S. Attorney's Office. But her situation
was more than a distraction. It was a serious blow to Biden, who chose her
for the job; to Senate Democrats, who confirmed her; and to progressive
politicians, who saw great things in her future. "It's a stunning downfall
for Rollins, who was praised by powerful Democrats and seen as a rising
progressive star when she was nominated for the post in 2021," the
Associated Press reported.

In the end, the episode gave some grim satisfaction to Republicans who are
to stop Democrats' move away from the enforcement of basic criminal laws.
"I warned Rachael Rollins was unfit to serve as a U.S. Attorney," Cotton
tweeted when she left. "Now she's resigning in disgrace. Good riddance."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-corrupt-progressive-reformer-
goes-down-in-flames/ar-
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