Rachael Rollins has earned almost $1.3 million from taxpayers and that’s a conservative estimate.
Both the Massachusetts Comptroller’s Office and Herald payroll data checklist Rollins as amassing checks as Suffolk District Attorney, Massport authorized counsel and a contract employee for the state Housing Finance Agency.
She resigned final week as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, the place she earned $183,500. She averted any disciplinary motion from the Department of Justice if she left promptly. The DOJ pointed to pension guidelines that state if, like Rollins, you allow earlier than changing into eligible for retirement, “you can ask that your retirement contributions be returned to you in a lump sum payment.”
Seems like her best choice.
The DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) leaves little question Rollins was headed for bother. The 93 U.S. Attorneys within the nation are held to lofty expectations making final week’s blockbuster twin studies on how Rachael Rollins did enterprise on the U.S. District Court in Boston all of the extra obvious.
Rollins was entrusted with some of the delicate jobs in authorities. As district lawyer and U.S. lawyer, she might make or break somebody. Her prime wage as Suffolk DA, data present, was $191,000 in 2021. She was extremely paid since you need professionals in that seat of energy. But she turned out to be a mere politician.
As the mud settles on this scandal, it’s clear Rollins had no different selection however to resign. The DOJ got here after her with a vengeance. The subsequent step was her case touchdown with the Office of Professional Responsibility — and it seems it wouldn’t finish nicely for Rollins.
“OPR is responsible for ensuring that (DOJ) attorneys perform their duties in accordance with the highest professional standards, as would be expected of the nation’s principal law enforcement agency,” the workplace states.
The workplace was established within the wake of the Watergate scandal and has a historical past of cracking down on rogue federal prosecutors. It makes completely clear precisely what is predicted of any federal lawyer — not to mention the pinnacle of a division.
Rollins by no means ought to have been given the U.S. Attorney’s job. President Biden was filling this seat with a DA already beneath scrutiny for being hot-tempered and vindictive. He put a political pawn in a cherished job that has now embarrassed Massachusetts.
The White House must strengthen its “designated political lead” in Massachusetts. Quickly. That is an individual, or individuals, who the get together holding the Oval Office is suggested to take heed to as U.S. Senators submit an applicant for the U.S. Attorney’s publish.
The Bay State is blue, and we’re paying for it at present. The lack of steadiness is already uncovered on Beacon Hill the place the state Legislature Dominated by progressive Democrats seems for each alternative to make life tough for companies and taxpayers.
Enough is sufficient. The Rachael Rollins affair ought to make everybody sick. Sick of the one-party rule the place checks and balances are too simply dismissed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”