(AFP) – US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday to become a federal appellate judge in a 50-49 partisan vote. The Republican-led Senate confirmed Emil Bove as a judge on the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, a lifetime appointment, despite fiery opposition from Democrats, who walked out of a Senate committee meeting in protest earlier this month.
Two GOP Senators — Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins — voted against the nomination, but Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber and were able to carry the vote anyway. A former federal prosecutor, Bove, 44, was nominated by Trump while serving as the third-ranking official in the Justice Department. His nomination drew fierce criticism, and Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a statement Tuesday night lambasting Bove after he got the new job.
“Mr. Bove’s primary qualification appears to be his blind loyalty to this President,” Durbin said, adding that Bove sided with January 6, 2021 rioters who stormed the Capitol, and fired career prosecutors who held them to account. The Third Circuit covers the eastern states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. New Jersey Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim issued a joint statement saying Bove’s “professional record is marred by a pattern of abusive behavior, ethical breaches, and disdain for the norms of judicial integrity.”
Opposition to Bove’s appointment was vocal in legal circles ahead of Tuesday’s vote. More than 900 former Justice Department attorneys recently sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee saying “it’s intolerable to us that anyone who disgraces the Justice Department would be promoted to one of the highest courts in the land.” A group of more than 75 retired state and federal judges also wrote the committee, saying it is “deeply inappropriate for a president to nominate their own criminal defense attorney for a federal judgeship.”
Bove represented Trump in the New York case that ended in his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star. He also defended Trump in two federal criminal cases which never reached trial and were shut down after Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Earlier this year, Bove ordered federal prosecutors to drop bribery and fraud charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, triggering a wave of resignations in the Manhattan US attorney’s office and the Justice Department in Washington. Bove has denied allegations that the decision was a quid pro quo in exchange for the Democratic mayor’s support for Trump’s immigration crackdown.
© 2024 AFP
