WASHINGTON – In a stunning rebuke of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominee Emil Bove, more than 900 former Justice Department attorneys on Wednesday condemned Bove’s “assault” on DOJ employees and urged senators to “rigorously examine” his record before considering voting for him.
“We, the undersigned, proudly defended the rule of law as attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ),” reads a letter to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with every other committee member.
“We are all alarmed by DOJ leadership’s recent deviations from constitutional principles and institutional guardrails,” they said. “We also share a grave concern over the senseless attacks on the dedicated career employees who are the backbone of the Department.”
“Emil Bove has been a leader in this assault,” they charged.
The former DOJ attorneys say senators need to take seriously the allegations facing Bove: former senior DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni claimed in a whistleblower disclosure that Bove, who is currently associate deputy U.S. attorney general, earlier this year told DOJ attorneys to disobey court orders and say “fuck you” to judges who ruled against them.
Reuveni also alleged that Bove led senior DOJ lawyers in deliberately lying to federal judges in a case involving the removal of hundreds of immigrants to a prison in El Salvador.
Trump has nominated Bove, 44, to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. He was previously Trump’s personal attorney.
“It is intolerable to us that anyone who disgraces the Justice Department would be promoted to one of the highest courts in the land, as it should be intolerable to anyone committed to maintaining our ordered system of justice,” reads the letter to senators.
During his Senate hearing last month, Bove was asked about the allegations that he told DOJ attorneys to defy court orders. He said he had “no recollection.”
Beyond the whistleblower’s allegations, the former DOJ attorneys highlight in their letter that Bove directed prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to dismiss the case against Mayor Eric Adams allegedly for political reasons, oversaw the termination of more than a dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors and called for the firings of eight senior FBI officials who were involved in Jan. 6 probes.
Here’s a copy of their letter, signed with everyone’s full names and former titles at the department.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday to advance Bove’s nomination to the Senate floor. He appears to have the votes along party lines. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who seemed like a possible wild card after announcing last month he won’t run again, told HuffPost on Wednesday that he plans to vote to move Bove’s nomination.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment in response to the letter.
Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection, which organized everyone signing onto the letter, said Bove has been “an architect and enforcer” of many attacks on th DOJ and its staff.
“Those of us who proudly defended the rule of law as attorneys at DOJ understand better than anyone the danger of an official who disgraced the Department being elevated to the federal bench,” Young said in a statement. “Those who were directly harmed by Bove’s actions are eager and willing to speak to the Senators about what they experienced at his hand, and we urge the committee to hear from them before taking this vote.”