WashingtonWhile Republicans rejected whistleblower allegations against his actions at the Justice Department, the Senate confirmed a former Trump attorney 50-49 on Tuesday for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge.
Bove, a former Southern District of New York federal prosecutor, served as Trump’s attorney and represented him in the two federal criminal prosecutions. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which considers issues from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, will have him on its panel.
Suggested Videos
Bove’s candidacy has been fiercely opposed by Democrats, who point to his role in the dismissal of the corruption prosecution against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his present status as a prominent Justice Department official. They have also attacked his attempts to go into department officials who prosecuted hundreds of Trump supporters who participated in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Bove has been accused of withholding the identities of a group of prosecutors involved in those criminal proceedings from January 6 and of agents who looked into the incident.
Democrats have also pointed to evidence from two whistleblowers, including new information from a whistleblower who chose not to go public and a resigned department lawyer who said earlier this month that Bove had recommended a claim to the Trump administration. According to two persons familiar with the recording, the whistleblower recently submitted an audio recording of Bove that contradicts several of his statements during his confirmation hearing last month.
According to quotations from the recording that The Associated Press reviewed, the audio is from a private video conference call at the Department of Justice in February when Bove, a senior officer at the department, talked about how he handled the case against Adams that was dismissed.
Since the whistleblower has not released the recording to the public, the individuals talked under the condition of anonymity. The Washington Post was the first to report on the whistleblower’s allegations.
Since GOP senators have deferred to Trump on almost all of his selections, none of that evidence has been sufficient to change Senate Republicans’ votes, and all but two of them voted to approve Bove.
Bove took aim at the criticism of his tenure during his confirmation hearing earlier this month, telling lawmakers that he is aware that some of his choices have caused controversy. However, Bove claimed that he has been falsely depicted as Trump’s enforcer and goon at the department.
During the Judiciary Committee hearing, senators questioned Bove about the February 14 call with attorneys in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. The call had garnered a lot of media attention due to Bove’s unusual directive that the attorneys have an hour to determine who will file the motion to dismiss the case against Adams on the department’s behalf.
The call was held in the midst of a lot of turmoil in the department because some of the prosecutors in Washington and New York who had been handling the case quit rather than agree to drop the case.
Bove stated near the beginning of the February call that the temporary Manhattan U.S. Attorney resigned 10 minutes before we were ready to place her on leave pending an investigation, according to the call transcript. However, Bove simply said, “No,” when asked at the hearing if he had begun by highlighting the fact that Sassoon and another prosecutor had disregarded orders and that Sassoon would be moved prior to her resignation.
At another point, Bove claimed he could not remember expressing in the call’s transcript that whoever signed the request to dismiss the Adams case would become the section’s leaders.
Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated on Tuesday that he thinks Bove will be a hardworking, competent, and equitable jurist.
According to him, his employees had attempted to look into the allegations, but the whistleblowers’ attorneys refused to provide them with all the information they requested. According to Grassley, the harassment, false charges, and vile speech aimed at Mr. Bove have gone too far.
A former Justice Department attorney who was fired in April after acknowledging in court that a Salvadoran man who had been residing in Maryland had been inadvertently deported to a prison in El Salvador filed the first whistleblower complaint against Bove.
Erez Reuveni, that attorney, detailed how, in the weeks prior to his dismissal, senior Justice Department officials attempted to obstruct and mislead courts to carry out deportations that the White House supported.
Reuveni recounted a March Justice Department discussion about Trump’s intentions to apply the law in response to what he said was an invasion by a Venezuelan gang. According to Reuveni, Bove brought up the potential for a court to halt the deportations before they could take place. According to Reuveni’s attorneys, Bove used foul language when he stated that the agency should think about instructing the courts on what to do and disregarding any such ruling.
According to Bove, he doesn’t remember saying anything like that.
___
