The Senate on Tuesday evening confirmed President Donald Trump’s ranking Justice Department official, Emil Bove, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit despite calls from Democrats to investigate whistleblower allegations against the nominee.
Bove, a former federal prosecutor with the Southern District of New York and the DOJ’s principal associate deputy attorney general, was confirmed in a 50-49 vote after a tense debate and a razor-thin vote. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski broke with their party to oppose the nomination, while Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) did not vote.
The vote marked Trump’s second successful appellate court appointment since returning to the White House.
The confirmation reflects Trump’s aggressive judicial strategy in his second term, building on the recent confirmation of Whitney Hermandorfer to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month to replace an Obama-era appointee, further tilting the court that hears appeals from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee to the right.
Bove’s confirmation, however, was far more contentious.
Just hours before the vote, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) sent a letter to the Justice Department’s acting inspector general, William Blier, urging an investigation into allegations that Bove once suggested ignoring court orders related to immigration enforcement. The two Democratic senators said it was “imperative” that the Senate thoroughly examine the whistleblower disclosures before taking final action.
“In the event these whistleblower complaints and other reports have not already prompted investigations by your office, we urge you to undertake a thorough review of these disclosures and allegations,” the letter stated.
A third whistleblower reportedly emerged Tuesday ahead of the vote, meeting with staff for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), whose spokesperson dismissed the late allegations as “a bad faith attempt to sink a nominee.”
In a speech on the Senate floor, Grassley stated how his team encountered challenges while attempting to review the three whistleblower disclosures in good faith, saying, “Any assertion that I or my staff was uninterested in the evidence is false.”
Bove, who served as Trump’s defense attorney during his criminal cases last year, has denied any wrongdoing previously under oath during his nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said he never instructed attorneys within the DOJ to defy federal court orders.
“I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order,” Bove told the Senate Judiciary Committee. He added, “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.”
Former DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni filed the initial complaint against him in June, with the backing of the Government Accountability Project. The liberal-aligned organization has received millions in funding from George Soros-backed Open Society Foundations and the left-of-center Fund for Constitutional Government.
Legal scholars aligned with Trump called the attacks on Bove politically motivated.
“Judicial fortitude is a hallmark of a Trump judicial nominee, and I have seen hundreds of judicial nominees; his performance at his confirmation hearing displayed that he has fortitude in spades,” said Robert Luther III, a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and former White House associate counsel. “He has undergone abuse beyond the measure of what any person should have to endure to secure a position in public service.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) delivered a blistering rebuke on the floor minutes after the vote: “How have Republicans allowed the bar to fall so low? This is a dark, dark day. A dark vote.”
Booker, who co-authored the last-ditch appeal to the Justice Department inspector general, said Bove’s record made him unfit for the federal bench. “His temperament — using vulgarities to claim that the Trump administration should disobey court orders — is disqualifying for the bench,” Booker said.
The most serious allegations against Bove stem from text and email messages obtained by congressional investigators and the whistleblower, Reuveni, who was fired in April after more than 14 years at the department.
Reuveni claims he was terminated for refusing to present what he called an “overzealous and misleading” legal argument in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation case, and alleged Bove told DOJ prosecutors to be prepared to tell federal courts “F*** you” to an order that Abrego Garcia and others be returned from El Salvador to U.S. custody after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg sought to block a series of March 15 deportation flights.
Bove will now take a lifetime seat on the 3rd Circuit, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — replacing Judge Julio Fuentes, a Clinton appointee who assumed senior status.