'Incredibly sad,' Ricardo Arroyo responds to Rachael Rollins report
BOSTON - Boston City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo responded Wednesday to allegations that U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins attempted to leak sensitive information in order to sabotage Arroyo's opponent in the race for district attorney.
The accusations against Rollins are included in the Justice Department's internal watchdog report released Wednesday. Rollins announced a day earlier that she will be resigning by the end of the day Friday.
Rollins is accused of attempting to leak information to the Boston Herald and Boston Globe that would negatively impact Arroyo's opponent, Kevin Hayden, during the 2022 Democratic primary for Suffolk County District Attorney.
The report also found Rollins lied about her role in the leaks under oath during an interview with the Office of the Inspector General.
"I just want to start by saying that I find all of this incredibly sad," Arroyo told reporters on Wednesday. "Rachael is someone who was a friend of mine prior to even being in elected office, as somebody who I've gone to to seek counsel. I haven't had a chance to read this report yet. I believe it dropped this morning. I'm absolutely going to read this report. At that time I'll be available for more of a longer comment on that. But I find all of this pretty sad right now."
Arroyo was asked if he spoke to Rollins about the campaign and if it was an attempt to influence the election.
"I've talked to Rachael a number of times about everything. I've talked to her about life, I've talked to her about family, I've talked to her about the campaign," Arroyo said. "So I have to read this report to figure out what's in it, what they're saying, what the crux of it is. I haven't had a chance to do that."
During the contentious 2022 election, Arroyo was the subject of a Boston Globe report alleging that he was accused of sexual assault when he was a teenager. Arroyo denied assaulting anyone and said police never interviewed him. Arroyo accused Hayden of being the source of the report being leaked.
A judge later granted Arroyo's request to release records related to the sex assault allegations.
"I'll say that this particular campaign suffered from a number of illegal leaks from different directions. Certainly the reports that were leaked two weeks before an election that have not been investigated to where those leaks came from. There's been a number of things in that particular case specifically that I'm aware of that I find considerably problematic and I hope are fully under investigation," Arroyo said.
"I will say that in the timeframe all of that was happening, I repeatedly said that those were being leaked, that things were illegally being brought out, and they weren't taken seriously from law enforcement that was actually the source of essentially where that was coming from," Arroyo added.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was also asked Wednesday about Rollins' resignation.
"I've known her to be a strong leader in our city on many, many issues and this has been quite a surprise," Wu said.