More than 75 former judges urge Senate committee to reject Trump judicial nominee Emil Bove

By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn and Jamie Gangel, CNN

(CNN) — More than 75 former federal and state judges on Tuesday called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, to a prestigious appeals-court judgeship.

“Mr. Bove’s egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position,” the group wrote, pointing to a series of controversies Bove has been at the center of over the past six months while serving as a high-ranking Justice Department official. Those include investigating FBI and DOJ officials who worked on cases related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection and dropping federal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The letter also noted allegations that Bove “explicitly plotted to violate court orders and direct law enforcement officers to engage in illegal acts” in an effort to further Trump’s deportation agenda, referring to a whistleblower report from a former Justice Department attorney.

“That whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, has provided members of this committee with compelling evidence and volunteered to testify under oath,” the letter continued. “The Senate has a duty to hear that testimony.”

Bove, who would serve a lifetime appointment on the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals if confirmed by the Senate, repeatedly denied several accusations of corruption during his confirmation hearing last month before the Judiciary committee.

“I am not anybody’s henchman,” Bove told the panel on June 25. “I’m not an enforcer. I’m a lawyer from a small town, who never expected to be in an arena like this.”

Several retired federal appeals court judges who were nominated by Republican presidents have signed on to the letter, including J. Michael Luttig, a Trump critic and a prominent conservative legal scholar put on the bench by President George H.W. Bush. Luttig endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris last year.

Bove is set to receive a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation vote on Thursday. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, a GOP swing vote, told CNN on Monday he is inclined to support Bove’s nomination even though the nominee did not denounce violence on January 6 in a questionnaire obtained by CNN, a red line the retiring senator had drawn.

The senator from North Carolina previously told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he would not support any nominees who expressed support for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. It was the reason Tillis would not support the nomination of Trump’s former DC US Attorney nominee, Ed Martin, opposition which effectively derailed the nomination.

The judges’ letter also argues that it is “deeply inappropriate” for a president to nominate their own former criminal defense attorney to serve on the federal bench. Bove’s nomination marks the first time Trump has nominated one of his former lawyers for a federal judgeship.

The group noted that those signees who served on the federal judiciary and went through Senate confirmation “know how critical it is for the functioning of our justice system that Senators rigorously vet nominees for lifetime federal judicial appointments that affect countless lives.”

Elevating Bove, the judges wrote, “would not only compromise the integrity of the courts, it would set a dangerous precedent that judicial power may be wielded in service of personal fealty rather than constitutional duty.”

If confirmed, Bove would be one of roughly a dozen judges with the power to review federal cases being appealed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands.

Bove, who spent a decade working as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, joined Trump’s legal team in 2023. He worked on three of Trump’s criminal cases over the span of roughly 18 months and became interim deputy attorney general soon after Trump took office in January. He quickly moved to align the department with Trump’s vision, clashing with career officials in the process.

Some of the department’s more controversial moves, largely executed by Bove himself, resulted in mass resignations and firings within the department.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the letter.

CNN’s Annie Grayer, Manu Raju, Paula Reid, Casey Gannon and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.

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