Rollins’ resignation ends the ethics probes, but the political consequences are just beginning
Rachael Rollins is resigning as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts after the release of two scathing reports detailing a slew of ethical failures over her year and a half in office. Most notably, the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of the Special Counsel found that Rollins tried to influence the election in which voters were choosing her successor as Suffolk County District Attorney. According to federal investigators, Rollins fed the press damaging details about one candidate, then-acting DA Kevin Hayden, including sensitive DOJ information; acted as a political adviser to the other candidate, Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo; and lied under oath about what she'd done.
Rollins' resignation seems to rule out any additional penalties from the government. But possible consequences for her political allies, and to others who share her progressive approach to law enforcement, are just beginning to come into focus. Adam Reilly is joined by GBH News Senior Investigative Reporter Phillip Martin and Abdallah Fayyad, an opinion writer and editorial board member at the Boston Globe, to discuss the long-term implications of the Rollins scandal.
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