Ahead of a Thursday vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on controversial Third Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Emil Bove, Senator Cory Booker and his fellow Judiciary Committee Democrats asked the committee to hear directly from a Justice Department whistleblower, but Republican leaders turned them down.
Erez Reuveni, the former Acting Deputy Director for the Office of Immigration Litigation, went public with allegations last month that Bove, a top Justice Department official, directed his subordinates to defy court orders related to President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda. Bove, Reuveni alleged, said Justice Department officials would need to “consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’”; other top department officials denied Reuveni’s account.
Reuveni’s allegations, Judiciary Committee Democrats wrote in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), warrant a new meeting to hear directly from Reuveni before Bove is greenlit for a lifetime appointment to a New Jersey-based seat.
“Mr. Reuveni has made credible allegations against Mr. Bove, which, if true, clearly disqualify him for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench,” their letter reads. “Thus, it is imperative that the Committee hear from Mr. Reuveni, under oath, before we vote on Mr. Bove’s nomination.”
But Grassley said in a lengthy letter of his own that, while he “respect[s] whistleblowers and the whistleblowing process,” he does not believe Reuveni’s account holds up to scrutiny and an additional hearing on his allegations would be “unnecessary.”
“There is no doubt that members of this Committee have had full and fair opportunity to address the issues you raise,” Grassley wrote. “Following a comprehensive review of the additional documents that you published following the hearing and discussed in the media, I do not believe they substantiate any misconduct by Mr. Bove.”
Democrats had also asked for a second hearing in order to continue interrogating Bove himself, a request that was similarly denied.
The whistleblower account is not the only controversy that has surrounded Bove during his relatively brief time at the Justice Department. As the Acting Deputy Attorney General, Bove ordered prosecutors in Manhattan to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, leading the local interim U.S. Attorney to resign and accuse the Trump administration of a quid pro quo with the embattled mayor.
That conduct came under heavy scrutiny during Bove’s Judiciary Committee hearing on June 25, during which Democrats grilled Bove over his past conduct in both the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York. Bove generally denied any accusations against him, though he also repeatedly declined to answer questions and said he couldn’t recall the answers to others; Booker went so far as to accuse Bove of perjury.
“We believe … that he actually perjured himself on numerous occasions,” Booker said shortly after the hearing ended. “It was not just his convenient ability to remember certain things he said, it was not just his trying to hide behind not being able to talk about the deliberations – we believe he said things that were very contrary to the facts, as pointed out by evidence that’s been put before the committee.”
In written responses to senators, per a CBS story, Bove also declined to denounce the January 6 attack on the Capitol, after having directed an effort in the Justice Department to fire prosecutors who had prosecuted January 6 defendants.
Bove was nominated in May for a seat previously held by Joseph Greenaway, a Barack Obama appointee, that Democrats failed to fill during the Biden administration. The Third Circuit covers New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, but four of its seats are typically reserved for New Jersey-based judges.
Bove’s own ties to New Jersey, though, are scant; his official nomination paperwork even lists him as “Emil J. Bove III of Pennsylvania.” Booker and Senator Andy Kim both attempted to use their home-state prerogative to waylay Bove’s nomination, but home-state senators get less sway over Circuit Court nominees under Senate norms, and Republicans decided to forge ahead anyways.
And Bove’s chances of ultimately getting confirmed rose last week after Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), a member of the Judiciary Committee who had previously sunk a different Trump nominee, told Politico that he’d “probably” vote for Bove. That makes it likely that Bove will make it through the committee vote, though he still might run into headwinds on the Senate floor.
