Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo repeatedly pushing his friend U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins to announce an investigation of his opponent is “clearly an abuse of the justice system,” a leading political ethics expert told the Herald.
Arroyo is in hot water following the release of bombshell federal ethics reports that center on Rollins, who said she plans on stepping down as the state’s top federal prosecutor on Friday.
The city councilor, who was a candidate for Suffolk County district attorney last year, during the DA campaign continued to text Rollins about publicly announcing a probe of his opponent, Suffolk DA Kevin Hayden.
For instance, Arroyo wrote to Rollins last Aug. 22 ahead of the Sept. 6 primary, “Are y’all announcing an investigation into (the police misconduct case) situation with Hayden? Would be the best thing I can have happen at this moment.”
Minutes later, Rollins responded to Arroyo, “Understood. Keep fighting and campaigning. I’m working on something.”
Arroyo trying to use the Department of Justice to punish his rival is “something that happens in totalitarian systems, not in a democracy,” the president of Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) told the Herald.
“The use of investigations and prosecutions for political purposes is clearly an abuse of the justice system,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said. “It’s clearly bad for democracy. It really is antithetical to the democratic system we have and to the independent justice system, which is such a foundational part of our democracy.”
Last Aug. 19, Arroyo started communicating with Rollins through an encrypted messaging service. The messages and calls on the platform were end-to-end encrypted, so that no one can read or listen to them, including the messaging service.
Rollins and Arroyo exchanged more than 380 text and encrypted messages in the two months before the primary and in the days immediately following the election.
Another of Arroyo’s texts to Rollins stated, “I think it’d be appropriate for you to at least comment since a) it seems potentially criminal and you have the public corruption unit and b) he’s trying to misrepresent what you did on this case.”
On Aug. 28, Arroyo asked Rollins for an update on a potential federal investigation of Hayden, sending her an encrypted message: “Whats [sic] going on with the investigation into him?” and “Is that moving?”
Arroyo and Rollins also had at least three phone conversations — on July 20 for 26 minutes, on July 29 for 1 hour and 51 minutes, and on Aug. 17 for 35 minutes.
Arroyo put out a statement following the release of the federal reports on Wednesday, saying, “Rachael has been a friend of mine since before either of us were elected officials. She is someone who I have sought advice and counsel from about various aspects of my life and career. I find this entire matter to be incredibly sad and unfortunate.”
“I was never contacted or notified about the Rollins investigations by the Inspector General or Special Counsel,” he added. “I have reviewed the reports released by their respective offices and neither of these reports allege any wrongdoing on my part. My focus remains on working for the residents of District 5.”
