Senate confirms Trump lawyer Emil Bove for federal appeals court judge spot — pushing past whistleblower claims

Justice Department official Emil Bove was narrowly confirmed to a lifetime seat on the federal appeals court after the GOP-led Senate dismissed whistleblower claims he urged the Trump administration to defy court orders.

The Senate voted 50-49 to approve President Trump’s former defense attorney to the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) breaking ranks and joining all 47 Democrats in opposing the nominee.

Tennessee Republican Bill Hagerty was absent for the vote. 

The 44-year-old attorney, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer during his criminal cases last year, will now sit on the judicial post that oversees federal courts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. 

During the contentious confirmation hearings, Bove faced sharp criticism from Democrats over his role in the dismissal of federal prosecutors handling the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot cases and his involvement in a request to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. 

He was also accused by fired DOJ official Erez Reuveni of telling federal prosecutors that White House officials might not comply with court orders that could interfere with the administration’s mass deportation plans – a claim Bove told lawmakers he had “no recollection of saying.” 

According to Reuveni, Bove, while serving as principal deputy attorney general, insisted that migrant flights to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) “take off no matter what” after a federal judge ordered them halted. 

“I respect this process, and I’m here today to address some of your questions about those decisions, but I want to be clear about one thing up front, there is a widely inaccurate caricature of me in the mainstream media,” the senior DOJ official said during his hearing last month. 

“I am not anybody’s henchman. I’m not an enforcer. I’m a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this.” 

Another whistleblower recently surfaced with an audio recording from a February DOJ video call, during which Bove allegedly gave New York prosecutors one hour to decide who would file the motion to dismiss the high-profile case against Adams on the department’s behalf. 

The call prompted multiple prosecutors in the Southern District of New York – where Bove once served – to resign rather than heed the DOJ’s order to toss Hizzoner’s criminal case. 

Pressed about the call during his confirmation hearing, Bove claimed he did not recall what was said. 

Democrats stormed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month after Republicans voted to advance Bove’s nomination, ignoring their calls to further investigate the whistleblower complaint. 

With Post wires.