This week, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will once again be asked to draw the line between what is permissible and impermissible for a Trump nominee, when they decide whether Emil Bove\u2019s nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals should receive a full Senate vote.<\/p>\n
Confirming Bove would mean redrawing that line to ignore serious concerns about his truthfulness under oath. I was in the room when he made statements that my colleagues and I understood as threats\u2014meant to pressure us into signing a motion to dismiss the federal criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Bove has since denied making any such statements in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but those denials do not reflect what actually took place.<\/p>\n
In February of this year, then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered prosecutors in my former office, the Public Integrity Section, to dismiss the bribery case against Mayor Adams. Bove openly admitted in a memorandum that the dismissal was unrelated to the facts and the law. This led to the resignation of five Public Integrity Section prosecutors, including me, to go along with prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in New York, who also refused the order and resigned. <\/p>\n
The Public Integrity Section has since been reduced to less than five prosecutors, meaning the only component of the Justice Department\u2019s Criminal Division dedicated to prosecuting domestic public corruption exists almost entirely in name only today. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In his written responses to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bove flatly denied that he ever so much as suggested a threat to me and my colleagues, explaining that during the meeting with our section, ‘[i]t was never my intention to coerce, pressure, or induce an DOJ attorney \u2013 through adverse employment actions, threats, rewards, or otherwise \u2013 to sign the motion to dismiss the charges against Mayor Adams.’ But by the time of that meeting, it\u2019s undisputed that he had already accepted the forced resignation of the U.S. Attorney in New York, put line prosecutors from that office on administrative leave for not signing the motion, and forced the entirety of the Public Integrity Section\u2019s management to resign when it refused to carry out his order. And how does his denial square with his admission that he generally recalls ‘[telling us] he didn\u2019t want to get anyone in trouble … so he didn\u2019t want to know who was opposed to signing the motion’? <\/p>\n
Bove\u2019s nomination would mark a troubling precedent: confirming a nominee who, in my view, gave testimony that was so obviously misleading to the committee and the American public. That\u2019s what makes this so profoundly disturbing. Previous contested judicial confirmation hearings have involved accusations where one nomination\u2019s credibility was pitted against that of an accuser, or judicial credentials were questioned. But never before has a nominee testified in such a demonstrably brazen manner with a wink and nod to the Republican committee members. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
There is only one realistic hope to prevent Bove\u2019s nomination from moving forwardto a full floor vote, and it rests on the shoulders of Sen. Thom Tillis. The North Carolina Republican, a staunch conservative, has previously demonstrated political courage by speaking for his principles, not his party, on many issues. He believes in ‘calling the balls and strikes.’ <\/p>\n
Sen. Tillis prevented the confirmation of Edward Martin, the woefully unqualified nominee for U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, who used his office to pen threatening, typo-ridden letters to Democratic members of Congress, defense attorneys, and Georgetown University. Bove poses a far graver threat, in that his would be a lifetime tenure to a judicial branch he believes should not be a check on the president\u2019s power.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Trump\u2019s latest tussle with Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society further reveals that he is no longer looking for jurists who are conservatives, but rather, loyalists. So, who would be better to elevate from a federal circuit court to the Supreme Court if Justices Thomas or Alito decided to retire before 2028 than Bove? <\/p>\n
On the Sunday night before I sent my resignation letter to Attorney General Bondi (Bove was cc-ed) on Monday, I was clearing out my belongings from my office when I noticed that someone had prominently placed a plaque on our reception desk. It quoted Abraham Lincoln: ‘If you want to test a man\u2019s character, give him power.’ <\/p>\n
Bove served as line prosecutor earlier in his career \u2013 he knows the prosecutor\u2019s code. But, in my experience, it appears that once he had a whiff of power, Bove was willing to abuse it. With his smug testimony, Bove has essentially called the Republicans’ bluff, believing that Sen. Tillis and the others won\u2019t have the courage to vote against him.<\/p>\n
Citizens of all political persuasions should hope that Sen. Tillis shows the courage and character that Bove lacks by voting no on his confirmation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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