WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is set to vote as soon as Tuesday evening to confirm former Trump lawyer Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge despite vocal Democratic opposition and a new whistleblower complaint against him.
The whistleblower provided Congress with an audio recording of Bove that runs contrary to some of his testimony at his confirmation hearing last month, according to two people familiar with the recording. The audio is from a private video conference call at the Department of Justice in February in which Bove, a top official at the department, discussed his handling of the dismissed corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to transcribed quotes from the audio reviewed by The Associated Press.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the whistleblower has not made the recording public. The whistleblower's claims were first reported by the Washington Post.
Democrats attempt to block Bove
The new evidence comes as Democrats try to delay Bove's confirmation and convince more Republicans to vote against him. A different whistleblower, a fired department lawyer, said earlier this month that Bove had suggested the Trump administration may need to ignore judicial commands — a claim that Bove denies.
None of that evidence has so far been enough to sway Senate Republicans — all but two of them voted last week to move forward on his nomination as Senate Republicans defer to Trump on virtually all of his picks.
A former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Bove was on Trump’s legal team during his New York hush money trial and defended Trump in the two federal criminal cases brought by the Justice Department. If confirmed by the Senate, he’ll serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Bove was at the forefront of the department’s decision to dismiss the case against Adams and also efforts to investigate department officials who were involved in the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Bove has accused FBI officials of “insubordination” for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the attack and ordered the firing of a group of prosecutors involved in those Jan. 6 criminal cases.
At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Bove addressed criticism of his tenure head-on, telling lawmakers he understands some of his decisions “have generated controversy.” But Bove said he has been inaccurately portrayed as Trump’s “henchman” and “enforcer” at the department.
A February call casts a shadow over his confirmation
Senators at the Judiciary Committee hearing asked Bove about the February 14 call with lawyers in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, which had received significant public attention because of his unusual directive that the attorneys had an hour to decide among themselves who would agree to file on the department’s behalf the motion to dismiss the case against Adams.
The call was convened amid significant upheaval in the department as prosecutors in New York who’d handled the matter, as well as some in Washington, resigned rather than agree to dispense with the case.
According to the transcript of the February call, Bove remarked near the outset that interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon “resigned about ten minutes before we were going to put her on leave pending an investigation.” But when asked at the hearing whether he had opened the meeting by emphasizing that Sassoon and another prosecutor had refused to follow orders and that Sassoon was going to be reassigned before she resigned, Bove answered with a simple, “No.”
At another moment, Bove said he did not recall saying words that the transcript of the call reflects him as having said — that whoever signed the motion to dismiss the Adams case would emerge as leaders of the section.
Republicans decry 'eleventh-hour' whistleblower claims
A spokeswoman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that Grassley’s staff has spoken to more than a dozen people who have reached out to the committee, but that the most recent “eleventh-hour” whistleblower allegations “reek of a bad faith attempt to sink a nominee who’s already received committee approval.”
At a separate committee meeting earlier this month, when Democrats walked out in protest, Grassley said that Bove “has a strong legal background and has served his country honorably.”
Since then, Democrats have tried to delay the confirmation, calling for additional votes as Republicans quickly moved his nomination to the floor. But there is little they can do to stop it. If all Democrats vote against Bove, Senate Republicans can lose three GOP votes and still confirm him if Vice President JD Vance breaks a 50-50 tie.
On Tuesday, Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Adam Schiff of California called on the Justice Department’s inspector general to tell senators whether Bove was under investigation.
“It is imperative that senators exercise their constitutional duty of advice and consent with full knowledge of Mr. Bove’s actions,” Booker and Schiff wrote the inspector general.
It's not the first whistleblower claim against Bove
The first whistleblower complaint against Bove came from a former Justice Department lawyer who was fired in April after conceding in court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who had been living in Maryland, was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison.
That lawyer, Erez Reuveni, described efforts by top Justice Department officials in the weeks before his firing to stonewall and mislead judges to carry out deportations championed by the White House.
Reuveni described a Justice Department meeting in March concerning Trump’s plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act over what the president claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Reuveni said Bove raised the possibility that a court might block the deportations before they could happen. Reuveni claims Bove used a profanity in saying the department would need to consider telling the courts what to do and “ignore any such order,” Reuveni’s lawyers said in the filing.
Bove said he has “no recollection of saying anything of that kind.”
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, said that Bove has used his position “to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president’s enemies.”
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine were the only Republicans to oppose moving forward with Bove’s nomination last week.
“We have to have judges who will adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution and do so regardless of what their personal views may be,” Collins said in a statement. “Mr. Bove’s political profile and some of the actions he has taken in his leadership roles at the Department of Justice cause me to conclude he would not serve as an impartial jurist.”
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