A group of former federal prosecutors have declared President Donald Trump’s one-time criminal defense attorney the “worst conceivable nominee” for a lifetime federal judgeship.
The attack on Trump’s nomination of Emil Bove, currently a top Justice Department official installed by the president, came in a letter the prosecutors sent to the Senate Monday, according to The Washington Post.
The letter said that Bove “has demonstrated a willingness to ignore his oath to the Constitution and to disregard the Rule of Law in an effort to conform to every possible whim of the President.”
“How can Bove be trusted to be fair and impartial in reviewing the appellate cases before him when they conflict with the Trump Administration’s desires?” the prosecutors asked.
As a high-ranking Justice Department official, Bove has emerged as an “enforcer” for the Trump administration, carrying out some of the president’s most controversial moves, like firing Jan. 6 prosecutors and fighting the legal battle for Trump’s mass deportation effort.
The White House defended Bove’s nomination in a statement to the Daily Beast.
“Bove is unquestionably qualified for the role and has a career filled with accolades, both academically and throughout his legal career, that should make him a shoo-in for the Third Circuit,” said spokesperson Harrison Fields.
The letter’s organizers are Dan Toomey, former president of the D.C. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Association, and Charles R. Work, former president of the D.C. bar. It was also signed by five other former prosecutors.
In late May, Bove was nominated by Trump to the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which handles cases out of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware district courts.
When he made the nomination, Trump wrote on social media that Bove is “SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone. He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Trump’s nomination of Bove has sparked controversy—especially since a whistleblower alleged that Bove told a room full of Justice Department lawyers that they would have to say “f— you” to court orders against the Trump administration.
The letter from former Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni, which was sent to the Senate a day before Bove testified, also claimed that Bove and other Trump loyalists at the Justice Department tried to thwart the courts “through lack of candor, deliberate delay and disinformation.”
Bove denied the allegations during his Senate confirmation hearing last month, telling senators that he had “no recollection of saying anything of that kind.”
“There is a wildly inaccurate caricature of me in the mainstream media,” Bove also said. “I’m not anybody’s henchman. I’m not an enforcer.”
Bove, a graduate of the Georgetown University’s law school, was a federal prosecutor in Manhattan from 2012 to 2022.
He then became a criminal defense attorney and went on to represent Trump in multiple cases, including the case dealing with a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
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