By Eric Tucker and Mary Clare Jalanick, Associated Press
Washington (AP) Despite strong Democratic opposition and a fresh whistleblower complaint against him, the Senate is scheduled to vote as early as Tuesday night to confirm former Trump attorney Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge.
According to two persons familiar with the recording, the whistleblower gave Congress an audio recording of Bove that contradicts several of his statements during his confirmation hearing last month. According to transcribed quotes from the audio examined by The Associated Press, the audio is from a private video conference call at the Department of Justice in February where Bove, a senior official at the department, talked about his handling of the withdrawn corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Since the whistleblower has not released the recording to the public, the individuals talked under the condition of anonymity. The Washington Post was the first to report on the whistleblower’s allegations.
The fresh information comes as Democrats attempt to persuade more Republicans to vote against Bove and postpone his confirmation. Earlier this month, another whistleblower, a department lawyer who was sacked, claimed that Bove had implied the Trump administration could have to disregard court orders—a claim that Bove refutes.
Senate Republicans defer to Trump on almost all of his choices, and last week, all but two of them voted to proceed with his nomination, demonstrating that none of that evidence has been sufficient to change their minds.
Bove, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, represented Trump in the two federal criminal proceedings the Justice Department filed against him and was part of his legal team during the Trump hush money trial in New York. He will join the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, if the Senate confirms him.
Bove led the department’s decision to drop the case against Adams and spearheaded the investigation of department officials implicated in the prosecution of hundreds of Trump supporters involved in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Bove has charged FBI officials with insubordination for ordering the dismissal of a group of prosecutors involved in those criminal cases from January 6 and for refusing to provide the names of the agents who looked into the attack.
Bove took aim at the criticism of his tenure during his confirmation hearing earlier this month, telling lawmakers that he is aware that some of his choices have caused controversy. However, Bove claimed that he has been falsely depicted as Trump’s enforcer and goon at the department.
During the Judiciary Committee hearing, senators questioned Bove about the February 14 call with attorneys in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. The call had garnered a lot of media attention due to Bove’s unusual directive that the attorneys have an hour to determine who will file the motion to dismiss the case against Adams on the department’s behalf.
The call was held in the midst of a lot of turmoil in the department because some of the prosecutors in Washington and New York who had been handling the case quit rather than agree to drop the case.
Bove said near the beginning of the February call that interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon resigned approximately ten minutes before we were going to place her on leave pending an investigation, according to the call transcript. However, Bove simply said, “No,” when asked at the hearing if he had begun by highlighting the fact that Sassoon and another prosecutor had disregarded orders and that Sassoon would be moved prior to her resignation.
At another point, Bove claimed he could not remember expressing in the call’s transcript that whoever signed the request to dismiss the Adams case would become the section’s leaders.
The most recent last-minute whistleblower claims, according to a spokeswoman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, “speak to more than a dozen people who have reached out to the committee, but they reek of a bad faith attempt to sink a nominee who has already received committee approval.”
When Democrats protested outside a separate committee meeting earlier this month, Grassley stated that Bove had a solid legal history and has served his nation with honor.
Since Republicans swiftly brought his nomination to the floor, Democrats have attempted to postpone the confirmation by requesting more votes. However, they are powerless to stop it. If Vice President JD Vance breaks a 50/50 tie, Senate Republicans can lose three GOP votes and still confirm Bove if all Democrats vote against him.
Democratic senators Adam Schiff of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey demanded on Tuesday that the inspector general of the Justice Department inform senators if Bove was being investigated.
Senators must fulfill their constitutional obligation to advise and consent while being fully aware of Mr. Bove’s activities. The inspector general was written by Schiff and Booker.
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A former Justice Department attorney who was dismissed in April after acknowledging in court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who had been residing in Maryland, had been inadvertently deported to a prison in El Salvador, filed the first whistleblower complaint against Bove.
Erez Reuveni, that attorney, detailed how, in the weeks prior to his dismissal, senior Justice Department officials attempted to obstruct and mislead courts to carry out deportations that the White House supported.
Reuveni recounted a March Justice Department meeting on Trump’s intentions to use the Alien Enemies Act in response to what he said was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Teen de Aragua. According to Reuveni, Bove brought up the potential for a court to halt the deportations before they could take place. According to Reuveni’s attorneys, Bove used foul language when he stated that the agency should think about instructing the courts on what to do and disregarding any such ruling.
According to Bove, he doesn’t remember saying anything like that.
The leading Democrat on the Judiciary panel, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, claimed that Bove had weaponized the Department of Justice against the president’s adversaries.
Senate Republicans. The only Republicans who opposed Bove’s nomination last week were Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Collins stated in a statement that we must have judges who will uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, regardless of their personal opinions. I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Bove would not be an unbiased jurist due to his political background and some of the things he has done in his leadership positions at the Department of Justice.
