Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official who’s up for a circuit court judgeship, denied allegations from a former DOJ official that he suggested the department would flout court orders for the administration’s agenda.
“I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order,” he told the senators at a Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Erez Reuveni, who was fired from DOJ in April, alleged that Bove indicated during a meeting that the administration would defy court orders to conduct its aggressive deportation agenda. Reuveni submitted his allegations in a whistleblower letter to Congress and the Department’s inspector general.
Democrats were quick to argue the charges called into question Bove’s fitness for the lifetime appointment to the circuit court.
Bove also defended the widely criticized decision to abandon the corruption prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, which triggered a revolt inside the Justice Department and prompted at least 10 prosecutors in New York and Washington to resign.
In his defense, Bove pointed to the decision by U.S. District Judge Dale Ho to dismiss the case.
“The motion to dismiss those charges was granted,” Bove said, “because the motion reflected a valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion.”
But in his decision, Ho excoriated Justice Department officials’ rationales for abandoning the case and wrote that he agreed to dismiss the case because he can’t force the department to prosecute someone.
Bove also denied that there was a deal with Adams to drop the prosecution in exchange for the Democratic mayor’s support for Trump’s immigration agenda. “The suggestion that there was some kind of quid pro quo was just plain false,” Bove said.
Moments later, however, Bove acknowledged that “policy reasons made it appropriate to dismiss the charges.”
Bove disputed some of the widespread characterizations of him, saying: “I am not anybody’s henchman. I am not an enforcer. I am a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this.”
