Judicial Pick Bove Says He ‘Never’ Advised Violating Rulings (1)

Justice Department official and judicial nominee Emil Bove denied whistleblower allegations that he suggested that government lawyers ignore court orders against the Trump administration’s deportation policy.

Bove, who has been nominated for a New Jersey-based seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, told the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing Wednesday that he has “never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order.”

“I don’t think there’s any validity to the suggestion that that whistleblower complaint filed yesterday calls into question my qualifications to serve as a circuit judge,” Bove said.

He also described the complaint’s allegations as “fundamentally a dispute about the challenges posed by the elected bureaucracy to the unitary executive, and to the people that elected the president and put him in office.”

Bove was accused of making that suggestion at a March meeting with other attorneys about litigation against the administration’s use of a wartime authority to deport alleged gang members, in a whistleblower complaint Tuesday by former Justice Department career lawyer Erez Reuveni.

When considering the possibility that a federal court could block the removals, Bove said at a meeting that the government “would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such court order,” Reuveni claimed.

Reuveni was fired in April after he admitted in court that the federal government should not have deported a Maryland man to El Salvador and that he hadn’t received a “satisfactory” answer from the government on why it couldn’t return him.

Todd Blanche, second-in-command at the department, wrote on social media Tuesday that he was at that meeting and Reuveni’s claims are “utterly false.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said at the hearing that Bove “has a complete disregard for the rule of law” and called on the committee’s Republican leaders to hold an oversight hearing into Reuveni’s allegations.

Jan. 6 Firings

Bove also faced questions from committee Democrats about his decision to direct the firing of Washington prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot cases.

Bove’s memo directing the firings told DOJ officials and the newly appointed Washington US attorney to “take all steps necessary to effectuate the termination” of line prosecutors focused on Jan. 6 cases who’d been converted from temporary to permanent status shortly before Trump took office. Bove defended his decision and criticized the “unacceptable” move by “the previous administration” to convert their status shortly after the election.

The panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), pressed Bove on his characterization of the Jan. 6 riot prosecutions as “that work as having involved a grave national injustice that’s been perpetrated upon American people over the last four years,” and condemned the terminations as retributive.

Bove said of his sentiments that “both things can be true.”

“I did and continue to condemn unlawful behavior, particularly violence against law enforcement. At the same time, I condemn heavy handed and unnecessary tactics by prosecutors and agents,” he said.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) criticized Judiciary Democrats for their “fake outreach” over purported “lawfare,” and praised Bove’s representation of the president as his personal lawyer as Trump faced federal charges that he mishandled classified documents and tried to obstruct the 2020 presidential election. Bove also represented Trump in his New York state trial on fraud charges related to hush-money payments, where Trump was found guilty.

Adams Case

Democrats also pressed Bove on his move to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

In February, while serving as acting deputy attorney general, Bove ordered prosecutors to drop bribery charges against Adams that he saw as politically motivated. That prompted Southern District of New York prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, and several other Justice Department attorneys to resign rather than carry out the order.

Sassoon alleged in her resignation letter that Bove wanted to dismiss the charges so that Adams would cooperate with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement goals.

Bove at the hearing said that any allegation of a quid pro quo arrangement “was just false.” Moments later, he said that “policy reasons made it appropriate to dismiss the charges.” Bove also cited DOJ’s concerns that the prosecution would interfere with Adams’ ability to “protect the city” and pursue his reelection campaign.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) questioned a potential double standard for elected officials.

“I don’t think that the reason that someone is running for office or has some policy agreement or disagreement with the administration should be a reason to bring or dismiss charges,” she said.

Privilege Shield

Bove went back and forth with Democrats on his invocation of privilege related to his Justice Department role.

Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) began the hearing by saying that Bove could be bound by “recognized privileges such as executive privilege, deliberative process privilege, and attorney client privilege,” and framed the privileges not as a courtesy by the committee but a legal obligation.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pushed back on what he characterized as unprecedented invocation of deliberative process privilege for a nominee to “evade questioning in this kind of confirmation hearing,” and criticized Bove’s “selective invoking” of the privilege “when he wants to avoid answering the question.”

Bove declined to discuss “participants in conversations” when asked by Blumenthal if he spoke with Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, before he filed his memo ordering dismissal of charges against Adams.

“It is appropriate for you to tell us whom you consulted before taking action on behalf of the United States of America. You have no basis to avoid that question,” Blumenthal said.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche attended the hearing and Attorney General Pam Bondi also joined the audience after testifying at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.