WASHINGTON — The nomination of Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts appears headed for a vote on Thursday, one week after it was postponed. It is the only item on the agenda for the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
The “Executive Business Meeting” is set for 9:00 AM in the Russell Senate Office Building.
Last Thursday, Republicans asked to postpone the vote on Rollins’ nomination.
Eight U.S. Attorney nominees were on the Judiciary Committee’s agenda for the first time last Thursday, and seven were advanced with a favorable recommendation.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Rollins’ nomination would be held over until at the request of the minority party.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and member of the committee, had previously threatened to block Rollins’s nomination over her progressive approach to prosecution, including her decisions to decline to prosecute some low-level, non-violent crimes.
Boston 25 News has reached out to Sen. Cotton about his impending vote. Sen. Cotton’s Deputy Press Secretary Mary Collins responded saying, “Rachel Rollins measures success as a prosecutor not by the number of victims she secures justice for, but by the number of criminals she helps avoid consequences. In this week’s hearing Senator Cotton plans to highlight Rollins’s pro-criminal record for his Senate colleagues, understanding that a large number of them still care about public safety and will be deeply disturbed by the facts about Rollins.”
Renee Algarin, a spokesperson for Rollins responded to Sen. Cotton’s comments saying, “District Attorney Rachael Rollins remains incredibly humbled by the great honor of being nominated by President Biden to be US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. She looks forward to the confirmation process and is deeply grateful for the wide range of support her nomination has received. She is focused on keeping the residents of Suffolk County safe and working closely with her local law enforcement partners to ensure Boston remains one of the very few major cities in the United States where violent crime is down.”
“With regard to how District Attorney Rollins and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office measure success, I will refer you to District Attorney Rollins’ Mid-Term Report, which highlights accomplishments over the past three years, as well as the “Misdemeanor Prosecution” working paper published earlier this year in the National Bureau of Economic Research that notably found, ‘nonprosecution of a nonviolent misdemeanor offense leads to large reductions in the likelihood of a new criminal complaint over the next two years,’” Algarin said.
Sen. Durbin said 85 nominees for U.S. attorney were processed by the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Trump administration, all of which were confirmed on a voice vote and only three were held over for a week in the committee after appearing on the agenda.
Rollins was the only nomination to be held last Thursday. Neither Cotton nor any other Republicans spoke then on the decision to postpone the vote.
If confirmed, Rollins would become the first Black woman to serve as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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