Emil Bove, nominated by President Donald Trump to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, forcefully denied allegations Wednesday that he urged Justice Department lawyers to ignore court orders to facilitate deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, calling the claims “wildly inaccurate.”
“No, I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order,” Bove testified during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. “I will reiterate … I did not advise any Justice Department attorney to violate court orders. The Deputy Attorney General [Todd Blanche] … has confirmed that the account in that whistleblower complaint is not accurate.”
Bove’s hearing came one day after Erez Reuveni, a former DOJ career attorney, submitted a 27-page whistleblower complaint accusing senior officials of planning to defy federal court orders related to March deportation flights targeting Venezuelan illegal immigrants. According to Reuveni’s account, Bove allegedly told subordinates in a March 14 meeting that “the planes needed to take off no matter what,” even if a court tried to block them. Reuveni claimed Bove said DOJ should consider telling courts “f*** you.”
Bove, speaking under oath, pushed back on the narrative, saying that even the whistleblower acknowledged the department intended to follow court orders.
“Even if that account is taken at face value,” Bove said, “the whistleblower acknowledges that he left the meeting … with the understanding that, of course, the department would advise clients to abide by court orders.”
He also noted that Reuveni signed a legal brief weeks later confirming the government’s compliance in one of the disputed cases.
“For all those reasons,” Bove added, “I don’t think there’s any validity to the suggestion that that whistleblower complaint filed yesterday calls into question my qualifications to serve as a circuit judge.”
The complaint was submitted to Congress and the DOJ inspector general by the Government Accountability Project, an organization famous for providing legal representation to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The group also has ties to liberal megadonor George Soros and other left-wing funders. GAP received at least $1.4 million from Soros’s Open Society Foundations between 2016 and 2020 and more than $13 million from the Fund for Constitutional Government, according to a 2023 Form 990.
Under questioning from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Bove described the complaint as part of a broader ideological fight inside the DOJ.
“This is fundamentally a dispute about the challenges posed by the unelected bureaucracy to the unitary executive and to the people that elected the president and put him in office,” Bove said.
Reuveni was fired in April shortly after raising concerns that the DOJ was ignoring a judge’s order by deporting migrants to El Salvador, including one man who was granted protection from deportation there by a Maryland court. He said DOJ leadership circumvented internal legal objections, pressured him to sign a brief making unsubstantiated claims about the deportee, and retaliated when he refused.
Bove, who was promoted to a top spot in the DOJ after representing Trump during his criminal cases ahead of his reelection, also came under fire Wednesday for his role in dismissing federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Democrats have alleged that the decision, executed over the objections of multiple career prosecutors, was part of a backchannel agreement to secure Adams’s cooperation with Trump’s immigration agenda.
“There’s been some criticism … suggesting that there was some kind of illicit quid pro quo in connection with that motion. That’s simply false,” Bove said. “Mayor Adams and lawyers filed a letter on the public docket in that case that stated explicitly there was no quid pro quo … And then critically, Mayor Adams himself was sworn under oath at the hearing, and he explained there were no agreements outside of what was committed to [in] writing.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) pressed Bove on whether he pressured career DOJ attorneys to support the motion to dismiss the case against Adams, which began during the Biden adminsitration.
Bove denied that he threatened or incentivized anyone. When asked if he “stated, suggested, or implied” that attorneys could be fired if they refused to sign the brief, Bove replied, “No.”
Bove also denied that any signers were promised a reward or special treatment in exchange for executing the DOJ’s wishes.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, testifying at a separate hearing Wednesday before the House Budget Committee, pointed to the timing of the whistleblower complaint as evidence that it was political.
TRUMP DOJ OFFICIALS DEFEND APPEALS COURT PICK EMIL BOVE
“I find the irony of the timing of it pretty remarkable,” Bondi said. “He takes hits at Emil Bove, who is one of the best human beings I know, one of the smartest, brilliant men I know, who will soon become a federal judge.”
The Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on Bove’s nomination in the coming weeks.