The White House describes Emil Bove as an ideal nominee for a position on the federal courts.
And that's exactly what critics fear.
Bove spent years as a federal prosecutor, registering convictions and generating complaints about his work before he left to defend Donald Trump through four criminal indictments. More recently, he's had a hand in some of the administration's most aggressive moves at the Justice Department.
As its top official responsible for daily operations, he was involved in sacking prosecutors and FBI agents who investigated Trump and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In a recent move, he walked away from the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Now, Bove is President Trump's nominee to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, a region that covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands.
His nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week offers Senate Democrats an opportunity to question him about upheaval inside the Justice Department this year, as well as complaints about his temperament and decision-making during his tenure as a federal prosecutor.
But his nomination also could represent a pivot point in Trump's approach to the judiciary.
Gregg Nunziata once served as chief nominations counsel for senior Republican lawmakers. He considers Bove's background as a staunch defender of Trump "very ill-suited for a lifetime federal judgeship."
If confirmed, Bove, 44, will enjoy a job with substantial autonomy and lifetime tenure.
Now the executive director at the Society for the Rule of Law, Nunziata said the nomination tests the legal movement that worked for decades to cement the ranks of the judiciary with young, credentialed conservative attorneys.
"Conservatives…even populist-inclined conservatives more aligned with the president than I am, should worry about judgeships being handed out as favors to loyalists," he said.
The White House sees the nominee differently. Spokesman Harrison Fields praised Bove's legal skills and said he should be a "shoo-in" to become a circuit court judge.
"The President is committed to nominating constitutionalists to the bench who will restore law and order and end the weaponization of the justice system, and Emil Bove fits that mold perfectly," Fields said in a written statement.
Bove's nomination has prompted several critical letters from Democrats. And on Tuesday, a day before his confirmation hearing, a whistleblower filed a formal complaint alleging Bove planned to knowingly defy court orders and withhold information from judges about the administration's deportation agenda.
Influence of Federalist Society
During his first term in office, Trump's White House confirmed more than 200 federal judges, working hand-in-hand with then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the Federalist Society.
But Trump has since clashed with judges who have moved to block some of his top priorities, including remaking the federal workforce and moving quickly to deport immigrants.
Trump has chafed at the influence and advice of the right-leaning Federalist Society and its former leader Leonard Leo, upon whom Trump relied in his first term to name hundreds of judges.
Bove is not a member of the Federalist Society, and is the highest-level pick out of a crop of judicial nominees the Senate Judiciary Committee is considering this week.
Trump posted on social media last month that Leo was "a real 'sleazebag'…a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions."
Mike Davis, a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, has been pressing Trump to make bolder picks for the courts in his second term.
"The days are over of FedSoc picking milquetoast judges who care more about what their liberal friends at their country club think than what the law and the Constitution actually say," Davis said in a written statement.
For his part, Leo said he was "grateful" at how Trump transformed the federal courts during his first term and declared the judiciary would be the president's "most important legacy."
Ed Whelan worked for Republican Senators and in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush. He said it's odd to see Trump and his allies attacking judges, because both Trump and his administration have racked up significant victories in the Supreme Court, especially a landmark immunity ruling before last year's presidential election.
Inside the judiciary, at levels below the Supreme Court, Whelan said, "It's going to be the rare instance in which an appointee, especially to a lower court, is going to be in a position to try to make a difference for the administration."
From law clerk to prosecutor to personal lawyer
Emil Bove has an extensive track record. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and went on to prestigious jobs clerking for two different federal judges, appointed by President George W. Bush. As a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, he rose to help lead the unit that prosecutes accused terrorists and drug kingpins.
Among the cases he handled were ones against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and against Cesar Sayoc, who sent bombs to prominent Democratic politicians and entertainment figures he considered to be Trump's enemies.
But Bove's work in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) also prompted a number of complaints and critiques.
The office abandoned a conviction it won in a sanctions case after a judge found severe prosecutorial misconduct, including failures by Bove and others to properly supervise the trial team, which did not turn over material that would have been helpful to the defendant.
Separately, the head of the federal public defenders in New York wrote to SDNY leaders that he had heard "pretty horrifying" reports about Bove, including a comment that Bove was "a prosecutor version of a drunk driver — completely reckless and out of control," according to the text of his letter made public this week by Democratic lawmakers.
Seven Senate Democrats said they're concerned about a pattern of potentially unethical conduct and abusive behavior. They've asked for any paperwork about any internal or external complaints about Bove during his time in the U.S. Attorney's office, in light of how powerful a position a federal judgeship presents.
"Mr. Bove's record of alleged abuse of power, ethical lapses, dishonesty, and unstable, abusive behavior during his tenure as a federal prosecutor warrants a thorough review of his employment history at SDNY by members of the Judiciary Committee," wrote Sens. Cory Booker, Peter Welch, Mazie Hirono, Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff, and Alex Padilla.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan declined comment.
Senate Democrats' opposition could influence public opinion but is unlikely to block Bove's confirmation in a Republican-controlled Senate, as long as all Republicans stick together to support him; the president's nominees are confirmed on a simple majority vote.
Efforts to reshape Justice Department
The new whistleblower complaint made public this week described a meeting in March, shortly before the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act to speed deportations, where Bove "stressed to all in attendance that the planes need to take off no matter what," then said that the group may need to consider telling judges "f*** you" and ignore possible court orders blocking immigrants from being removed from the U.S.
That account conflicts with several representations others inside the Justice Department have made to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg about when planes carrying migrants took off and passed through U.S. airspace on their way to El Salvador.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Bove's boss, said in a written statement that he attended the meeting and "at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed."
In Washington, Bove has played a central role in efforts to shrink the Justice Department and shift its priorities.
He reported for duty on Inauguration Day and soon made several controversial moves early in the new administration, from firing career prosecutors, to ordering up a list of FBI agents and intelligence analysts who helped build cases against people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
That's despite evidence that Bove himself developed Capitol riot prosecutions before he left the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan.
Eric Adams case fallout
And Bove personally stood up in court, solo, this year in New York to move to drop the corruption case against New York's mayor, an unusual move for such a high-ranking Justice Department official.
Bove's push to get prosecutors to dismiss the indictment against Eric Adams, but leave open the possibility that Adams could be prosecuted in the future, provoked outcry and prompted about a dozen prosecutors to resign rather than carry out what they considered to be a possibly corrupt deal.
"(A)ny assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way," wrote Hagan Scotten, one of the Adams prosecutors who quit.
"If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me."
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho ultimately dismissed the case against Adams but not without casting aspersions on the Justice Department. "Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions," the judge wrote.
Mike Fragoso served as a Senate aide to key Republicans, including former majority leader McConnell. Fragoso, who now works at the Torridon Law firm, said he's seen no evidence Bove was acting at the direction of Trump when DOJ sought to dismiss the Adams case or to fire Jan. 6 prosecutors.
"I think he is more likely than not applying his own views on how the executive branch and how the Department of Justice should work, informed by his own experience within it," Fragoso said.
But Stacey Young, a former DOJ lawyer who now runs a group called Justice Connection, criticized his nomination.
"Emil Bove has overseen the complete disregard for the law and institutional norms that have guided the Justice Department for decades," said Young, whose group defends government lawyers under attack from the Trump administration. "Putting him on the federal bench would be an affront to judicial independence, the dedicated professionals at DOJ, and the rule of law."
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