Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former defense attorney who took aggressive steps to enforce Trump’s political agenda at the Justice Department in the early months of his presidency, told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “I’m not anybody’s henchman” at a confirmation hearing Wednesday to consider him for a federal judgeship.
Trump last month tapped Bove, who has been helping lead the Justice Department, for a judgeship on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees district courts in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
In his opening statement Wednesday, Bove vigorously disputed what he described as “a wildly inaccurate caricature” of himself generated by the “mainstream media” which has cast him as a “henchman” of President Trump.
“I am someone who tries to stand up for what I believe is right, I’m not afraid to make difficult decisions — I understand that some of those decisions have generated controversy,” Bove said. “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 wildly inaccurate caricature of me in the mainstream media. I’m not anybody’s henchman. I’m not an enforcer.”
The hearing came one day after a former top DOJ career official issued an explosive whistleblower complaint accusing Bove of allegedly suggesting the Trump administration should defy judicial orders that sought to restrict their aggressive efforts to deport undocumented immigrants earlier this year.
The complaint — filed by Erez Reuveni, who was fired from the department in April after he appeared in federal court in Maryland and admitted to a judge that the government had mistakenly deported accused MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador — alleged that at a meeting on March 14, Bove said the department should consider saying “f— you” to the courts and “ignore any such court order.”
Asked by Sen. Adam Schiff about the alleged comments, Bove said, “Senator, I have no recollection of saying anything of that kind.”
Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit, testifies during his Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing, June 25, 2025 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“Did you suggest … that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘f— you’ and ‘ignore any such court order’?” Schiff asked.
“I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders, at the point of that meeting, there were no court orders to discuss,” Bove replied.
“Well, did you suggest telling the courts f— you in any matter?” asked Schiff.
“I don’t recall,” Bove said.
Schiff, joined by other Democrats on the committee, said he would issue a formal request to have the committee be provided any notes of the meetings described in the complaint that may have formally documented what Bove said.
Bove said the filing of the complaint by Reuveni, a longtime career official who was promoted under the first Trump Administration for his immigration legal work, was an example of the “unelected bureaucracy” seeking to thwart “the unitary executive” and “the people that elected the president.”
“What I mean by that is, throughout this complaint, there’s a suggestion that a line attorney, not even the head of the Office of immigration litigation, was in a position or considered himself to be, to bind the department’s leadership and other Cabinet officials,” Bove said. “I don’t abide that line thinking in my management style, and I’m not apologetic of that.”
In an exchange with Sen. Eric Schmitt, Bove detailed how his past representation of Trump as a defense attorney helped drive his aggressive moves at the DOJ, where he fired scores of prosecutors involved in investigations of Trump and reassigned dozens more high-level career officials who worked on issues like public corruption and national security to focus on lower-level immigration offenses.
“From the perspective of a prosecutor, senator, it turned me into a person who wanted to get that building back on the right track, a track where people are, in fact, doing the right thing for the right reasons, and I think there’s many, many, many people, career civil servants in the department, who are doing just that,” Bove said. “But I also think that there are parts of the department that have lost sight of that obligation, and I saw that in my experiences as a defense lawyer.”
“And so what I would say is that that experience gave me, provided, equal intense focus on reform efforts to make sure that the unelected bureaucracy at the department was not in position to subvert the political will of the democratically elected president,” he said.
Democrats on the committee, meanwhile, expressed exasperation over Bove repeatedly invoking privilege to refuse to answer certain questions regarding actions he’s taken in his five months helping oversee the DOJ.
He refused to answer whether there was any direct involvement by White House officials such as Stephen Miller in the DOJ’s decision to drop federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in exchange for his support on immigration enforcement. Multiple career prosecutors resigned in protest over the move but Bove rejected allegations that there was any “quid pro quo” deal.
“I am absolutely flabbergasted that you would come before this committee and refuse to tell us basic facts about a case that is at the core of the allegations to the appearance of impropriety that should disqualify you,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. “You have the opportunity to clear the air, to come clean with the American people as well as this committee, and you are evading and avoiding these questions.”
Adams has denied the allegations and has pushed back on accusations of a quid quo pro.
Pressed by Ranking Democratic Senate Judiciary member Sen. Dick Durbin over his move early in Trump’s presidency to request a full list of FBI agents who investigated the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Bove argued the request was based on an effort to identify any personnel who may have engaged in wrongdoing — not to target them for investigating the attack itself.
“I did and continue to condemn unlawful behavior, particularly violence against law enforcement,” Bove said. “At the same time, I condemn heavy handed and unnecessary tactics by prosecutors and agents. Both of those things I submit are characteristic of these events.”
Bove also said he stood by statements in an article for Law360 in 2022 in which he described the Capitol attack as “domestic terrorism” and argued there wasn’t any inconsistency between that belief and his firings of multiple Jan. 6 prosecutors at the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office in his opening weeks at the Justice Department.
Durbin, in his opening remarks at Wednesday’s hearing, said, “The former personal defense attorney of President Trump, Mr. Bove has led the effort to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president’s enemies. Having earned his stripes as a loyalist to this President, he’s been rewarded with this lifetime nomination.”
Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley cast Bove as a victim of an “intense opposition campaign” by Democrats and the media.
“I think that this committee owes this nominee a fair shake and respect at this hearing,” Grassley said. “This is hardly the first time this Congress that we’ve come into a nomination hearing against a backdrop of breathless claims that one of President Trump’s nominees is uniquely unqualified or unfit.”
Grassley argued that lawmakers should instead look to Bove’s resume as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and his time as a judicial clerk on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, prior to serving as Trump’s personal attorney.
“This high stakes worked demands sharp legal judgment and steady resolve,” Grassley said. “Day in and day out, he was in the trenches putting terrorists and drug traffickers behind bars … Put very simply, Mr. Bove checks every box — academic distinction, federal courtships, complex trial and appellate litigation, senior Justice Department leadership. His experience isn’t just sufficient, it is very exceptional.”
It’s not immediately clear when Bove’s nomination will be formally voted out of the committee or when his confirmation vote will be scheduled by the Senate.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
