Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, has been confirmed to a lifetime seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — the culmination of a tumultuous campaign from his detractors that ultimately fractured his support among the Senate GOP.
The Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Bove, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defecting from the rest of their party to join all Democrats in opposing.
Bove was plagued by reports of whistleblowers alleging that he recommended the administration ignore court orders that would disrupt Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. His nomination became a flashpoint battle for Democrats, who argued the current principal associate deputy attorney general had made clear he valued fealty to the president over the law and was therefore unfit for the federal bench.
“Look at his record: Emil Bove has shown time and time again his disrespect for the very office he seeks to hold,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), pointing to the whistleblower’s allegations, during a recent speech on the Senate floor. “I don’t know of another case I have seen in my 14 years in the Senate where someone so unqualified for the bench is before us.”
Booker was among Bove’s chief antagonists, with New Jersey being among the states from where the newly-confirmed judge would hear appeals — along with Delaware, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands.
Trump has long taken pride in his selections for the federal judiciary, of which there were hundreds during his first term, and he has also indicated he expects from his judges, in turn, a degree of loyalty. That pressure has only become more acute during Trump’s second term, as he has taken to targeting federal judges who have presented obstacles to his administration’s agenda.
In plenty of ways, Bove fits the mold of Trump judicial nominees. But Bove’s allegiance to Trump goes deeper than those of Trump’s previous judicial picks. Before joining the DOJ as a top agency official, Bove represented Trump in criminal probes around the retention of classified documents and efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
The cases were ultimately dismissed after Trump’s 2024 electoral victory, and not long after, some of his onetime attorneys, including Bove, joined the upper ranks of his administration. Todd Blanche, who worked with Bove on those cases, is now deputy attorney general.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal…
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