The Senate on Thursday advanced the controversial nomination of Emil Bove, teeing up a final vote on his lifetime appointment to an appeals court.
Bove, who is currently serving in the No. 3 role at the Justice Department, has been nominated by President Trump for a judgeship on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Senate voted 50-48 to limit debate on his nomination. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) were the only GOP members to vote against advancing Bove.
Bove has been embroiled in controversy since the start of the Trump administration. He was behind moves to fire prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases and moved to dismiss the bribery charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), prompting a flood of resignations from career attorneys.
Most recently he has been at the center of allegations from a Justice Department whistleblower who said Bove suggested the department should defy expected court orders blocking its plans to send Venezuelan migrants to a foreign prison, saying they may need to say “f— you” to the courts.
Democrats asked to hold a hearing with the whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, who was fired after disclosing in a related case that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported due to an administrative error.
Democrats took to the floor ahead of the vote to say the information presented about Bove was disqualifying.
“With Bove’s nomination, we are about to find out if Republicans are content to give a man so routinely in defiance of the rule of law, a lifetime job interpreting it on behalf of millions of Americans. Like so many of his unfit Cabinet nominees, Donald Trump is daring Senate Republicans to oppose him,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on the Senate floor.
“I hope and pray they will, because the pattern is clear. Emil Bove takes orders from Donald Trump, and that is it. His only merit is blind obedience, not to the law, but to the president, and not just any president, but to one who is also a convicted felon. And so I urge my colleagues to look at Bove’s record of disrespect for the law and reject this dangerous nominee.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) noted that more than 900 former Justice Department attorneys who served under presidents of both parties had signed on to a letter opposing his nomination, while more than 75 judges also spoke out against his nomination.
“I don’t know of another case I have seen in my 14 years in the Senate where someone so unqualified for the bench is before us,” Booker said.
“But somehow right now, it just seems to be too few Republicans willing to stand up with courage of their convictions, to call it like it is, to do their constitutional duty to look squarely at the qualifications of this judge and see what plainly professionals, prosecutors, judges — by the hundreds — from both parties have come forward and said to this body: do not let him go forward.”
