
Former Justice Department prosecutors seek to derail Emil Bove's federal judge nomination, memos say
The effort includes outreach to sway the vote of Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican whose objection doomed the nomination of another Trump surrogate earlier this year. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a vote on Bove's nomination for a seat on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.
Bove, a former personal defense attorney for Mr. Trump, has been a magnet for controversy this year as he has served as a top Justice Department administrator.
A group of eight former federal prosecutors have drafted a memo for senators arguing for the defeat of Bove's nomination. The group accuses Bove of being a "hatchet man" for Mr. Trump who would work as a loyalist for the president from the bench.
In the memo, the former prosecutors accuse Bove of executing mass firings inside the agency of people "perceived not to show sufficient loyalty to the Administration's policies." They also point to a whistleblower complaint accusing Bove and others of discussing whether to ignore court orders.
The group also argues Bove sought to execute a quid pro quo earlier this year, by forcing out Justice Department employees who refused to work to dismiss New York Mayor Eric Adams' "serious criminal corruption indictment in return for the mayor's commitment to cooperate with the Administration's immigration policy." Bove has denied that Adams' prosecution was dropped as part of a quid pro quo.
Dan Toomey, a former federal prosecutor in Washington, is helping to lead the effort and is among the signatories to the memo. Toomey is a former president of the D.C. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Association.
"We are exceedingly worried about whether or not this man is going to be a guy who is fair and impartial as a judge, or just a mouthpiece for the administration," he told CBS News.
Chuck Work, who served as a D.C. federal prosecutor in the 1970s, has also signed his name to the memo opposing Bove's confirmation. Work told CBS News, "Employees have had complaints about Bove's temperament. Temperament is really important for a judge. And this man does not have it."
The former prosecutors are asking Judiciary Committee leaders to delay any vote on Bove until the panel can hear testimony from a Justice Department whistleblower who has alleged Bove sought to defy court orders.
The whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, alleges he was "threatened, fired, and publicly disparaged" in his final weeks in the department after he questioned instructions from top Justice Department officials to ignore court orders and misrepresent facts in three separate, high-profile standoffs between the department and federal judges over immigration cases. Among those officials was Bove.
"To ensure that the committee is not accused of 'rubber stamping' this nomination, it has to hear from the whistleblower and review the contemporary and damning documentation he's provided," Toomey said.
The Justice Department defended Bove in response to Reuveni's allegations. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said his account contains "falsehoods purportedly made by a disgruntled former employee," and "at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed."
Documents reviewed by CBS News showed the group has attempted to press Tillis to "come to the rescue of the rule of law and oppose the nomination of Emil Bove to the Third Circuit."
Tillis told CBS News on Tuesday that Bove "has the votes" to move through the Senate Judiciary Committee, after which the Senate would vote on his nomination. But Tillis said he is unsure if Bove has sufficient votes to pass in the Senate. Tillis did not mention any objections he had to Bove's nomination. Tillis has told reporters in the past he's likely to vote in favor of Bove.
Tillis — who is not running for reelection next year — has occasionally broken with Mr. Trump.
Earlier this year, Tillis objected to the nomination of Trump surrogate and former Jan. 6 defense lawyer Ed Martin for the top federal prosecutor position in Washington, D.C. Tillis has also criticized Trump surrogates who deny the violence against police in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Bove is accused of ordering the FBI to compile a list of more than 5,000 FBI employees who were part of the Jan. 6 probe, for a further internal review of the agents' actions in the cases.
"Tillis has said the January 6th insurrection happened and that the pardons that Trump issued 'sucked,'" Work said. "He went around and told that to police officers around Capitol Hill."
When asked for comment, the White House has championed Bove's nomination for the court.
"Emil Bove is an incredibly talented legal mind and a staunch defender of the U.S. Constitution who will make an excellent circuit court judge. Bove is unquestionably qualified for the role and has a career filled with accolades, both academically and throughout his legal career, that should make him a shoo-in for the Third Circuit," White House spokesman Harrison Fields told CBS News earlier this month.
"The President is committed to nominating constitutionalists to the bench who will restore law and order and end the weaponization of the justice system, and Emil Bove fits that mold perfectly," Fields said.
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News24
a minute ago
- News24
Trump's World Liberty crypto tokens to become tradeable
Holders of the digital tokens issued by World Liberty Financial, one of the crypto ventures of the family of Donald Trump, voted on Wednesday to make them tradeable, paving the way for their wide sale and purchase -- potentially boosting the value of the president's holdings of them. The World Liberty tokens, known as $WLFI, were sold to investors after the Trump family and their partners launched the venture — a "decentralised finance" platform that has also issued a stablecoin - last autumn. The tokens were not made tradeable at their initial sale. Instead, they gave holders a right to vote on some changes to the business, such as its underlying code. Early investors have said the primary draw of $WLFI was the connection to Trump and, in turn, their expectations the tokens would grow in value due to his backing. Making the tokens tradeable would see investors determine their price, enabling speculation, earning trading fees for exchanges that list them and likely stoking interest from a wider swath of crypto investors. The extent to which the Trump family, which reaps three-quarters of revenues from the initial sales of the tokens, will benefit from their wider trading is not clear. Gains in the tokens' price would, however, swell the value of the family's token holdings, the exact level of which is unclear. World Liberty and Trump's other crypto businesses have faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers and ethics experts as the president's administration reshapes regulations in the booming crypto sector. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic Representative Maxine Waters sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year in which they said, "The Trump family's financial stake in World Liberty Financial represents an unprecedented conflict of interest with the potential to influence the Trump Administration's oversight—or lack thereof—of the cryptocurrency industry." The World Liberty tokens have not been designated as securities by the SEC, meaning they are not subject to the same scrutiny as investments like stocks. The White House has said Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children and that there are no conflicts of interest. The White House has not released the details of the trust arrangement. The Trump family business has been placed into a trust whose sole beneficiary is the president, meaning that the hundreds of millions of dollars from crypto deals struck while Trump is in office could hypothetically be withdrawn at any time, or at the latest, be at his disposal when he leaves office in less than four years. Trump's company, DT Marks DEFI LLC, was set to receive 22.5 billion out of a total 100 billion $WLFI tokens, according to a description of the project released in October. The president held 15.75 billion of the tokens at the end of last year, according to a public financial disclosure report published last month. The Trump family has made around $500 million from World Liberty since the platform was launched, according to Reuters calculations based on the company's terms and conditions, transactions traced by crypto analysis firms and publicly-disclosed deals. Asked by Reuters how the vote would impact the value of $WLFI tokens held by Trump and his family, the White House press office said: "This is not an inquiry for the White House." The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment. In response to Reuters' questions about how the tokens will become tradable, a World Liberty spokesperson said: "Additional details are forthcoming." The venture says on its website that making $WLFI tradeable "brings us one step closer to building a more open, transparent, and powerful financial system." "The American public should be very concerned about the president's vested interests in the cryptocurrency market," said Chris Swartz, a former longtime attorney at the U.S. government's Office of Government Ethics, including under both Trump administrations, who now serves as senior ethics counsel for Democracy Defenders Action, a legal advocacy group. "Not only is it a potential conduit for foreign emoluments and other illicit payments, but it puts the president in competition against other cryptocurrency issuers at the same time he is advocating for digital asset marketplace legislation. That is a clear conflict of interest." The World Liberty proposal to "formally initiate the tradability of the token," posted on its website on 9 July, was approved by 99.94% of around 20 900 votes. Some voters cited expectations of price gains or support for Trump as reasons for their choice. "We invested to get rich," one wrote on the World Liberty website. "To make america great again," wrote another. The identities of nearly all holders are hidden behind wallet addresses. A Milan-based person using the name Paolo, who declined to give his full name, told Reuters he had bought 95 000 $WLFI tokens for about $5 000. $WLFI tokens were sold in two initial tranches at $0.015 and $0.05. Paolo said he voted in favour of making the tokens tradeable and planned to hold the tokens until they reach $12. "Then I try to buy more when the price drops," he said. The World Liberty proposal said the timing for making the tokens tradeable, and the eligibility requirements, would be determined at a later, unspecified date. Tokens held by World Liberty's founders, team and advisers would not be initially "unlocked" for trading and would be subject to a longer "unlock schedule," it said. The implementation of approved proposals would "occur within a reasonable time from the passage of the applicable proposal,' according to the project description from October.


CNN
14 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump lashes out at ‘weaklings' who believe Epstein ‘bullsh*t' amid building GOP pressure to release documents
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'Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker,' Trump wrote in a missive on Truth Social. 'They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.' Trump said the Epstein controversy — roiling now for more than a week after his Justice Department announced in a memo that there was no Epstein 'client list' and it didn't plan to release any more documents in the investigation — was distracting from the successes of his presidency. 'I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country's history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,' he wrote. 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The pressure to release more information has mostly fallen on Bondi, who said earlier this year she had a list of Epstein's clients sitting on her desk, but whose department later said in its memo no such list existed. Bondi said last week she was referring to other documents at the time. Trump has enthusiastically backed up Bondi, saying she's handled the matter well. But he also appeared open Tuesday to allowing more information to come out, at Bondi's discretion, though he suggested any additional details might not be legitimate. 'I would like to see that also,' the president said, in an apparent reference to calls for more transparency. 'But I think the attorney general — the credibility is very important, and you want credible evidence for something like that, and I think the attorney general's handled it very well.' A few hours later, Bondi swatted away the possibility that she could release more case files, suggesting instead that last week's memo declining to release files on Epstein 'speaks for itself' and rejecting questions about making more documents public.
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
US House clears procedural hurdle on cryptocurrency legislation
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