A senior Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, denied to Congress on Wednesday that he had expressed to subordinates an intent to ignore court orders to accomplish President Trump’s rapid deportation goals.
The remarks, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, came during Mr. Bove’s confirmation hearing for an appeals court judgeship in Philadelphia, a lifetime appointment that is one rung below the Supreme Court.
Mr. Bove, a key driver of the Trump administration’s sweeping changes at the Justice Department, was repeatedly questioned about a whistle-blower complaint that portrayed political appointees as willing to mislead judges and defy the courts. The complaint, by a former lawyer in the department’s immigration division, Erez Reuveni, said Mr. Bove had shocked subordinates at a meeting on March 14, when he said they might ignore court orders as the administration sent planes of immigrants to a high-security prison in El Salvador.
The New York Times on Tuesday reported on Mr. Reuveni’s account, in which he described witnessing Justice Department leaders planning “to resist court orders that would impede potentially illegal efforts to deport noncitizens.”
At the outset of the hearing, the committee’s Republican chairman, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, declared he was skeptical of Mr. Reuveni’s account. Democrats and the news media were merely trying to torpedo Mr. Trump’s pick, added Mr. Grassley, who has championed government whistle-blowers for decades.
Mr. Bove’s nomination has generated significant resistance from current and former Justice Department lawyers, as Mr. Bove has led the administration’s efforts to fire, demote and undermine career law enforcement officials who worked on cases that President Trump dislikes. Those include the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol; the federal investigations of Mr. Trump; and other cases involving conservatives.
Stacey Young of Justice Connection, a group that advocates for former department employees, including some of those Mr. Bove has dismissed, said confirming him only carried risks. His testimony “proved again today why he is such a dangerous nominee,” she said. “It’s possible to be smart, experienced and morally bankrupt. If you are No. 3, No. 1 and No. 2 can’t save you.”
In his testimony, Mr. Bove defended his past conduct and reputation.
“I am not anybody’s henchman, I am not an enforcer,” Mr. Bove said. Becoming one of Mr. Trump’s criminal defense lawyers two years ago, he added, was a courageous stand at a time when his friends warned that doing so could lead to being fired, going broke or getting indicted.
“That was a decision to fight for what was right, and fight for the rule of law, and if I am fortunate enough to become a judge I will abide by that standard,” he said.
Democrats repeatedly pressed him about what they viewed as troubling aspects of his tenure at the Justice Department. In addition to the whistle-blower’s accusation that he stated an intent to disregard judicial rulings, they included his move to drop criminal charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York.
Pressed by Senator Adam B. Schiff of California, Mr. Bove issued a flat denial. “I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders,” he said.
In his account, Mr. Reuveni recounts how Mr. Bove and other department officials misled judges and violated court orders. Mr. Reuveni also described an instance in which Mr. Bove, using a profanity, had stated that the Justice Department could simply consider ignoring the courts.
The whistle-blower account also said Mr. Bove had told other lawyers in attendance at the March 14 meeting that the deportation planes in question “needed to take off no matter what.”
Asked if that description was accurate, Mr. Bove said, “I certainly conveyed the importance of the upcoming operation.”
Mr. Reuveni said he was fired after he refused to sign a court filing making what he thought was a misleading claim in a case involving the wrongful deportation of a migrant living in Maryland to a prison in El Salvador.
Republicans largely defended Mr. Bove, with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas thanking him for “stepping forward and fighting to keep American citizens safe.”
In February, Mr. Bove demanded that career lawyers sign a motion seeking the dismissal of corruption charges against Mr. Adams, saying that while he had not examined the evidence, he wanted the case to end because Mr. Adams could help with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Mr. Bove’s demands led to a wave of resignations and dismissals of prosecutors, decimating the public integrity section, which polices criminal conduct among politicians.
Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, asked about a fateful meeting Mr. Bove had with those prosecutors. In that meeting, Mr. Bove dangled the possibility of a promotion to any lawyer who would sign a motion seeking dismissal of the case against Mr. Adams, according to people familiar with the events.
One lawyer, Edward Sullivan, agreed to sign the motion, telling the others he was doing so to protect the others from being fired, according to people familiar with the conversation.
Mr. Sullivan now leads the greatly diminished section, but in his testimony, Mr. Bove denied that there was a “causal relationship” between his request and Mr. Sullivan’s acquiescence and subsequent promotion.
At the end of the questioning, Mr. Booker suggested that Mr. Bove might have lied to the lawmakers.
“I am hoping that more evidence is going to come out that showed that you lied before this committee,” Mr. Booker said. “What’s your red line, I really wonder. What could the president ask you to do that you wouldn’t do?”
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
The post Bove Denies Suggesting Justice Dept. Ignore Court Orders appeared first on New York Times.
