Latest news with #Bove
Hamilton Spectator
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Senate considering nomination of ex-Trump defense lawyer for lifetime appointment to appeals court
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate narrowly voted on Tuesday to begin considering the nomination of former Trump lawyer Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge, with at least one Republican opposed and Democrats vowing to try to slow his confirmation. Bove, a former criminal defense lawyer for President Donald Trump, is now a top official at the Justice Department. His nomination for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has come under intense scrutiny from Democrats after a fired department lawyer said he suggested the Trump administration may need to ignore judicial commands — a claim Bove denies . He was at the forefront of the department's dismissed corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. He has also accused FBI officials of 'insubordination' for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in those Jan. 6 criminal cases. The 50-48 vote came after Democrats forced an additional procedural vote on his nomination, an effort to protest the nomination and delay the process. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Bove 'the extreme of the extreme of the extreme' and 'Trump's worst judicial nominee to date.' 'Mr. Bove's entire career has been built on one thing: fealty to Donald Trump,' Schumer said. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to vote against moving to consider the nomination, signaling that Republicans will have the votes to confirm Bove by the end of the week. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted to move forward but has not said whether she will support Bove's confirmation. The tension and delays over Bove's nomination come as Republicans have tried to move Trump's nominees as quickly as possible and as Trump has pushed Senate Majority Leader John Thune to skip the traditional August recess to stay in session and confirm more judges and executive branch officials. Thune said he is considering doing that if Democrats continue to force delays, and Democrats have shown little signs of letting up. At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Bove took 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. 'I am someone who tries to stand up for what I believe is right,' Bove said. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the panel, said Bove has used his position 'to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president's enemies.' Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, defended Bove against the whistleblower's claims and said he deserves fair treatment. He said Democrats withheld the complaint from the fired lawyer and that his staff had investigated the claims. 'Mr. Bove has a strong legal background and has served his country honorably,' Grassley said at a Senate Judiciary meeting last week, where Democrats walked out in protest. The whistleblower complaint 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.' 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. ___ Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Toronto Star
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Senate considering nomination of ex-Trump defense lawyer for lifetime appointment to appeals court
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate narrowly voted on Tuesday to begin considering the nomination of former Trump lawyer Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge, with at least one Republican opposed and Democrats vowing to try to slow his confirmation. Bove, a former criminal defense lawyer for President Donald Trump, is now a top official at the Justice Department. His nomination for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has come under intense scrutiny from Democrats after a fired department lawyer said he suggested the Trump administration may need to ignore judicial commands — a claim Bove denies.
Winnipeg Free Press
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Senate considering nomination of ex-Trump defense lawyer for lifetime appointment to appeals court
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate narrowly voted on Tuesday to begin considering the nomination of former Trump lawyer Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge, with at least one Republican opposed and Democrats vowing to try to slow his confirmation. Bove, a former criminal defense lawyer for President Donald Trump, is now a top official at the Justice Department. His nomination for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has come under intense scrutiny from Democrats after a fired department lawyer said he suggested the Trump administration may need to ignore judicial commands — a claim Bove denies. He was at the forefront of the department's dismissed corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. He has also accused FBI officials of 'insubordination' for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in those Jan. 6 criminal cases. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, arrives to advance President Donald Trump's nominees for the federal bench, including Emil Bove, Trump's former defense lawyer, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) The 50-48 vote came after Democrats forced an additional procedural vote on his nomination, an effort to protest the nomination and delay the process. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called Bove 'the extreme of the extreme of the extreme' and 'Trump's worst judicial nominee to date.' 'Mr. Bove's entire career has been built on one thing: fealty to Donald Trump,' Schumer said. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to vote against moving to consider the nomination, signaling that Republicans will have the votes to confirm Bove by the end of the week. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted to move forward but has not said whether she will support Bove's confirmation. The tension and delays over Bove's nomination come as Republicans have tried to move Trump's nominees as quickly as possible and as Trump has pushed Senate Majority Leader John Thune to skip the traditional August recess to stay in session and confirm more judges and executive branch officials. Thune said he is considering doing that if Democrats continue to force delays, and Democrats have shown little signs of letting up. At his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Bove took 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. 'I am someone who tries to stand up for what I believe is right,' Bove said. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the panel, said Bove has used his position 'to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president's enemies.' Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, defended Bove against the whistleblower's claims and said he deserves fair treatment. He said Democrats withheld the complaint from the fired lawyer and that his staff had investigated the claims. 'Mr. Bove has a strong legal background and has served his country honorably,' Grassley said at a Senate Judiciary meeting last week, where Democrats walked out in protest. The whistleblower complaint 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.' 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. ___
Vox
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Vox
The conservative case against Trump's worst judicial nominee
is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he focuses on the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the decline of liberal democracy in the United States. He received a JD from Duke University and is the author of two books on the Supreme Court. Emil Bove is one of President Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyers. He's now a senior Justice Department official — and he's widely described as Trump's 'enforcer' for his hard-charging, unapologetically MAGA approach to that job. If Trump gets his way, moreover, Bove could soon become one of the most powerful people in the United States. Last week, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Bove's nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, after the committee's Democrats walked out in protest. In the likely event that Bove is confirmed, he'll be well-positioned to become one of the United States' nine philosopher kings and queens. SCOTUS, Explained Get the latest developments on the US Supreme Court from senior correspondent Ian Millhiser. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. According to legal journalist Jeffrey Toobin, 'the president is grooming Mr. Bove for bigger things — possibly a seat on the Supreme Court.' Should that happen, it would mark a return to cronyism in Supreme Court nominations. For many decades, presidents of both parties have chosen justices largely based on those justices' allegiance to their political party's ideological agenda, rather than based on personal loyalty to the president. Indeed, Trump's decision to place personal loyalty over conservative ideology may explain why much of the opposition to Bove is bipartisan. Bove isn't simply opposed by lefty groups that traditionally protest many Republican judicial nominees — he is also opposed by some prominent right-wing judicial activists, one of whom warned that Trump is turning 'his back on principled legal conservatives.' Bove's views on a wide range of issues that have historically animated movement conservatives — such as abortion and religion — are largely unknown. So, while Bove will almost certainly be unflinchingly loyal to Trump if he is confirmed to the federal bench, there's no way to know whether he will hold to the Republican line on a wide range of domestic policy issues. The case against Emil Bove Based solely on his resume, Bove is conventionally qualified for a federal judicial appointment. He graduated from Georgetown University's law school, clerked for a federal appeals court judge, and worked as a litigator for more than a dozen years — both at the Justice Department and in private practice. Bove currently serves as principal associate deputy attorney general, essentially the No. 2 lawyer in the Justice Department's No. 2 office. For the first month-and-a-half of Trump's second term, however, he was DOJ's second-ranking official, period — acting deputy attorney general. By backing nominees like Bove, Republicans risk filling the bench with the same kind of unreliable allies that they fought to stop in 2005. A whistleblower complaint by another former Justice Department lawyer, meanwhile, claims that Bove stated, in a meeting about a court decision halting some deportations, 'that D.O.J. would need to consider telling the courts 'fuck you' and ignore any such order.' Multiple lawyers who litigated against Bove also accuse him of abusive and unprofessional behavior. As one lawyer put it, 'what he enjoyed most as a prosecutor was wielding power.' In late 2020 or early 2021, the Justice Department opened a formal investigation into Bove's management style while he was working as a supervisor in a US attorney's office. Investigators eventually recommended that Bove be demoted from his supervisory role, although the office never followed through on this demotion. So the nonpartisan case against Bove is fairly straightforward: His critics see him as a reckless bully. As Ed Whelan, a longtime conservative activist best known for his attempt to rebut sexual assault charges against Justice Kavanaugh by using the real estate website Zillow, wrote in the National Review, 'I have serious doubts that Bove has the character and integrity to be worthy of confirmation as a federal judge.' Why Republicans used to oppose cronies Bove's nomination marks a return to the kind of crony politics that animated Supreme Court nominations for much of the Court's history, but that has largely faded in recent years as the Court became more partisan. For much of American history, presidents paid surprisingly little attention to their Supreme Court nominees' ideology. President Woodrow Wilson, for example, appointed his attorney general, James Clark McReynolds, to the Supreme Court in large part because Wilson found McReynolds to be personally obnoxious — and putting him on the Court meant that Wilson did not have to deal with McReynolds in his Cabinet. President Dwight D. Eisenhower complained that his appointment of Justice William Brennan, a hugely influential left-liberal justice, was one of the biggest mistakes Eisenhower made in office. But Ike's White House never vetted Brennan for ideology, and Eisenhower chose him largely because Brennan was Catholic; Eisenhower thought that the appointment would appeal to Catholic voters. Often, presidents selected justices from among their friends and political allies. Chief Justice Fred Vinson, who President Harry Truman appointed to the Court, was also a regular at Truman's poker games. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed one of his former personal lawyers, Justice Abe Fortas. And Fortas continued to act as a presidential adviser while he also sat on the Supreme Court. But it's been quite some time since a justice joined the Court because of their personal loyalty to the sitting president. Today, presidents typically create a bench of potential Supreme Court nominees by appointing ideologically reliable lawyers to federal appeals courts. These lawyers are selected more because of their loyalty to their political party's agenda than to any particular person. Supreme Court nominees are then drawn from the Democratic or Republican Party's bench in the lower courts. Eight of the current justices fit this model. The one exception is Justice Elena Kagan, who served as President Barack Obama's solicitor general before her elevation to the high Court but who was never a lower court judge. Indeed, in a letter opposing Bove's nomination, Gregg Nunziata — who served as Senate Republicans' chief nominations counsel during the confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito — writes that confirming Bove would 'betray the decades-long project of the conservative legal movement' by inviting 'more nominations of presidential loyalists in place of committed conservative lawyers.' Nunziata has a point. The most recent example of a president attempting to appoint a personal loyalist to the Supreme Court occurred in 2005, when President George W. Bush nominated his own White House lawyer Harriet Miers. But the Miers nomination crashed and burned in just a few weeks, largely because conservatives feared that she had a thin record on key issues like abortion. Barring extraordinary events, Trump will not be president in four years. That means that, if he appoints Bove to the federal bench, Bove will soon no longer be able to make decisions by asking 'what would the president want me to do?' At that point, it really will matter what Bove thinks about issues like abortion, religion, marriage equality, or transgender rights.
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
GOP push behind Trump agenda has Congress in an uproar
Advertisement And that was just last week. Veteran lawmakers said that the level of vitriol and dysfunction in the Capitol had reached a fever pitch. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'It is bad — really bad,' Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said when asked to assess the mood on Capitol Hill. 'There's a level of frustration. How do we get back to doing our jobs?' Republicans have achieved hard-won legislative victories, but those have come at a cost, setting the stage for a meltdown that has, among other things, raised the prospects of a government shutdown this fall. Some GOP lawmakers are feeling squeezed, while Democrats, outraged that the White House is shredding funding agreements and doling out money however it wants, are threatening to abandon a tradition of bipartisan spending deals. Advertisement 'I want to warn my colleagues once again: If you keep going down this path, you are going to further undermine our bipartisan process,' said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. 'The more bridges you burn, the fewer paths you leave to get things done.' Her comments came as all but two Republicans banded together to push through legislation around 1 a.m. Friday allowing the Trump administration to cancel $9 billion in previously approved spending on foreign aid and public broadcasting. Murkowski, one of the two opponents in her party, said the measure was an unacceptable breach of congressional spending power. It was not just the spending divide that was inciting tumult on Capitol Hill. In a lengthy session Thursday evening, Democrats and Republicans on the powerful House Rules Committee engaged in nasty back-and-forth over the rising clamor for Congress to vote on releasing criminal files in the investigation of Epstein, who died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. That morning, Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee had stormed out of a meeting in protest after Senator Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who leads the panel, cut off debate and forced a committee vote on the disputed judicial nomination of Emil Bove. Bove, a Justice Department official and former defense attorney for Trump, is up for an influential post on a federal appeals court that encompasses Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. He has been accused by a former Justice Department colleague of declaring a willingness to defy court orders on immigration, a charge Bove has disputed. Advertisement Democrats wanted more time to examine the nomination. But Grassley forged ahead despite those demands, ramming the approval through in one of a series of Republican-only votes. Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, implored him to stop, accusing the chair of 'an abuse of power.' The two had worked closely in the past on criminal justice issues. 'To me, it is a president who has such a thrall over the Republicans in the Senate that he could get them to surrender not just their power, but their constitutional obligations,' Booker said after the blowup, adding that Republicans were relinquishing their ability to provide a check on White House nominees. Grassley dismissed the complaints, claiming Democrats had executed 'a political hit job' on Bove. He said Democrats had shut down Republican members of the committee in the past, when they held the gavel in the majority. 'This is not unprecedented — either the walking away or what we did as a majority,' Grassley said. 'It has happened before, and we have to move things along.' Russell T. Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the chief architect of a campaign to pry spending power away from Congress, exacerbated tensions on Capitol Hill. He told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast that there needed to be less bipartisanship around federal spending — not a sentiment typically heard on Capitol Hill. He also reiterated his contention that spending levels set by Congress were an advisory ceiling, not a floor. His commentary infuriated Democrats already bristling at the $9 billion in added cuts — the first approved by Congress in decades under a special procedure that allows the president to cancel spending. Advertisement 'He wants to destroy,' Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, the minority leader, said as he called for Trump to fire Vought. 'Destroy the way that Congress works, destroy the balance of power and upend our entire Constitution. Russell Vought doesn't believe in this democracy.' Vought's comments could complicate efforts by Republicans and Democrats to work out spending levels for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Democrats said that his argument destroyed any incentive for them to strike deals, since he made clear the White House would seek to unravel them later with an assist from Senate Republicans. A test vote in the Senate on the first of the annual spending bills is scheduled for Tuesday. 'That just profoundly undermined the stability and purpose of a bipartisan appropriations process,' Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, a member of the Appropriations Committee, said of Vought's comments. Some lawmakers attributed the congressional edginess to lawmakers being wrung out from repeated all-night sessions to push through the Republican tax cut and domestic policy bill, and from late-night Senate debate over the additional cuts sought by the administration. 'A lot of this is people are just tired,' said Senator John Boozman, Republican of Arkansas. 'Hopefully this all blows over soon.' Some of the fights have occurred within Republican ranks. On Wednesday, an internal House Republican dispute over cryptocurrency legislation led to a usually routine process vote being held open for more than nine hours as leaders toiled to secure the necessary support. It was just the latest in a series of congressional records being set with extended floor fights and speeches. 'I am tired of making history,' Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday night. 'I just want a normal Congress.' Advertisement Given the intensity of the divisions so far and the potential momentous clashes ahead, normal seems out of the question. This article originally appeared in
