The U.S. lawyer for Massachusetts, Rachael S. Rollins, misused her workplace to “boost” a political ally, flouted ethics guidelines to acquire free tickets from the Boston Celtics and lied underneath oath to investigators, the Justice Department inspector basic mentioned on Wednesday.

The 161-page report — one of the extraordinary public denunciations of a sitting federal prosecutor in current reminiscence — was launched a day after Ms. Rollins announced she would resign at the end of this week, conceding that she had change into a dangerous “distraction” in one of many division’s most necessary workplaces.

Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz opened an investigation into Ms. Rollins final yr after a printed report that she had attended a July 2022 Democratic National Committee fund-raiser headlined by Jill Biden, the primary woman.

His group decided that these actions violated insurance policies and legal guidelines in opposition to electioneering. But the inquiry quickly expanded to embody a placing vary of obvious misconduct, together with efforts to discredit a political rival and her acceptance of flights and a keep at a resort that have been paid for by a sports activities and leisure firm, he mentioned.

The division’s in-house watchdog “received multiple additional allegations concerning Rollins,” the inspector basic’s employees wrote within the report. They included allegations of misuse of place, attainable violations of reward guidelines and different division insurance policies, the report mentioned.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, one other federal watchdog company, released its own findings on Ms. Rollins shortly after the inspector basic’s report got here out, concluding that she had violated the Hatch Act, which restricts political exercise by federal officers.

In a letter to President Biden, Henry Kerner, the particular counsel, described her violations as amongst “the most egregious transgressions” he had ever investigated.

Ms. Rollins might be changed by Joshua S. Levy, her deputy, till the White House nominates her successor, in line with a senior Justice Department official.

Ms. Rollins departs as her workplace tackles considered one of its highest-profile circumstances in recent times: the investigation into the leak of labeled nationwide safety paperwork by Airman Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman assigned to an intelligence wing at a base on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.

Mr. Horowitz mentioned he was most alarmed by proof that Ms. Rollins had secretly tipped off a Boston Herald reporter a few attainable Justice Department investigation into one of many candidates then working to succeed her as Suffolk County district lawyer, Kevin R. Hayden, to profit a pal and ally, Ricardo Arroyo.

Ms. Rollins “brought her efforts to advance Arroyo’s candidacy” to her job as the highest federal regulation enforcement official in Boston, investigators mentioned.

She initially tried to steer a senior aide to subject a letter suggesting the division was investigating Mr. Hayden for public corruption. When the particular person refused, she reached out to the newspaper in an unsuccessful effort to make her claims public earlier than the election, investigators discovered.

Mr. Hayden defeated Mr. Arroyo within the main in September, and received the overall election in November. The Herald revealed a narrative a few attainable investigation three days after the first, citing an unnamed “federal law-enforcement source.” He has by no means been accused of against the law.

Ms. Rollins appears to have been motivated, partially, by revenge following a harmful report revealed in The Boston Globe a few sexual abuse allegation in opposition to Mr. Arroyo when he was a teen. She believed it had been disseminated by Mr. Hayden’s marketing campaign — and made an election night time promise to Mr. Arroyo that Mr. Hayden “will regret the day he did this to you,” in line with the inspector basic.

She initially denied being the supply in a Dec. 6 interview with Mr. Horowitz’s investigators, however admitted she was the official referred to within the story when she was re-interviewed shortly afterward.

In late December, Mr. Horowitz knowledgeable division prosecutors that Ms. Rollins had misled his investigators for a attainable prosecution. They declined to carry fees, he mentioned.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland had no remark.

A lawyer for Ms. Rollins downplayed the report. He mentioned that the violations of federal laws and regulation outlined by investigators amounted to little greater than “process fouls,” and that she had merely failed to regulate to the completely different expectations that went with a federal official’s function.

“The central truth is that Ms. Rollins moved from being an elected official with virtually no restrictions on her activities to the highly regulated environment of the U.S. attorney’s office,” mentioned her lawyer, Michael R. Bromwich, who was the Justice Department’s inspector basic from 1994 to 1999.

He instructed she may have carried out extra to push again on Mr. Horowitz’s claims however “believed the better course was to step down and end the matter before it overwhelmed her office and D.O.J.”

But investigators, who reviewed dozens of textual content messages and emails from Ms. Rollins to associates, reached a special conclusion: that she had repeatedly blurred the boundaries between governmental duties and her grievances, non-public life or political aims.

In early 2022, as an illustration, Ms. Rollins reached out to the Celtics to acquire 30 free tickets for members of an area youth basketball league, enlisting an worker on the U.S. lawyer’s workplace to assist prepare the logistics — a charitable endeavor that nonetheless violated federal ethics pointers.

She then compounded the issue by accepting a proposal from a Celtics worker for a pair of recreation tickets. Those seats, in a loge space with a face worth of $350 every, have been a lot better than these given to the youngsters, positioned within the rafters of TD Garden and valued at $80 or $85 apiece.

“Amazing!” she wrote after a Celtics worker emailed her the tickets. “Thank you!!!”

Ms. Rollins additionally accepted greater than $2,000 in journey, lodging and leisure from a California-based sports activities and leisure firm that hosted her for a two-day summit she attended in Ojai, Calif., in June.

Ms. Rollins advised investigators that she participated in a panel dialogue centering on civil rights and civil engagement, and that she thought she was not required to hunt ethics approval for the journey as a result of she had a pre-existing relationship with the organizers of the occasion.

But underneath federal laws, she was required to acquire approval from division headquarters in Washington earlier than accepting the invitation, investigators mentioned.

In January, Ms. Rollins paid again the corporate $2,307.66 after investigators questioned her. She is presently looking for reimbursement from the Justice Department, claiming the journey was official journey, the report mentioned.