2nd whistleblower speaks out on Emil Bove appellate court appointment
July 27 (UPI) -- A second whistleblower has come forward in the appointment of Emil Bove to a lifetime appellate court judgeship, saying Bove directed attorneys to give false information and defy court orders.
Bove, a former member of President Donald Trump's criminal defense team in his fraud case in New York, is the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. Trump nominated him for Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge in Philadelphia.
The second whistleblower, who is not named, is a career Department of Justice attorney and is represented by Whistleblower Aid, a non-profit legal organization that helps public- and private-sector workers report and expose wrongdoing. They disclosed evidence to the DOJ's Office of the Inspector General that corroborates the first whistleblower's claims that Bove and other senior DOJ officials were "actively and deliberately undermining the rule of law," Whistleblower Aid said.
"What we're seeing here is something I never thought would be possible on such a wide scale: federal prosecutors appointed by the Trump Administration intentionally presenting dubious if not outright false evidence to a court of jurisdiction in cases that impact a person's fundamental rights not only under our Constitution, but their natural rights as humans," Whistleblower Aid Chief Legal Counsel Andrew Bakaj said in a statement.
"What this means is that federal career attorneys who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution are now being pressured to abdicate that promise in favor of fealty to a single person, specifically Donald Trump. Loyalty to one individual must never outweigh supporting and protecting the fundamental rights of those living in the United States," he said.
The DOJ defended Bove.
"Emil Bove is a highly qualified judicial nominee who has done incredible work at the Department of Justice to help protect civil rights, dismantle Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and Make America Safe Again," spokesperson Gates McGavick told CNN. "He will make an excellent judge -- the Department's loss will be the Third Circuit's gain."
Bove has contradicted the complaints.
"I don't think there's any validity to the suggestion that that whistleblower complaint filed ... calls into question my qualifications to serve as a circuit judge," Bove told the Senate the committee during his confirmation hearing.
"I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order," Bove said.
As Trump's personal attorney, Bove defended him in his federal criminal cases, which were dismissed after his reelection. He also represented Trump in his New York hush-money case. In that case, he was found guilty of all 34 charges.
The previous whistleblower Erez Reuveni provided documents earlier this month saying that Bove is the person who gave the Trump administration the directive to ignore a court order to stop flights taking migrants to a Salvadoran prison. Bove allegedly said to prepare to tell the courts "f- you." Bove told Congress he doesn't remember using the F-word and sidestepped other questions about the incident.
Reuveni was fired from his job as the acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation after he disclosed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported in error. He worked for the DOJ for 15 years.
The Senate gave its preliminary approval for Bove's appointment.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said "Even if you accept most of the claims as true, there's no scandal here. Government lawyers aggressively litigating and interpreting court orders isn't misconduct - it's what lawyers do."
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