On Tuesday, Emil Bove — who is President Donald Trump’s former personal criminal defense attorney — was confirmed to a lifetime appointment on the powerful U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on a party-line vote in the U.S. Senate. One legal expert is warning that Bove’s confirmation signifies a dangerous new milestone for both Congress and the courts.
During a Tuesday interview on MSNBC host Jen Psaki’s “The Briefing,” former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann, who was also an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, argued that the United States system of constitutional government was rapidly eroding. Weissmann said that Bove’s elevation to the Third Circuit (which has jurisdiction over U.S. District Courts in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) proves that the Republican-controlled Congress is now “asleep at the switch” and “a lapdog to Donald Trump.”
“This is not a normal candidate,” Weissmann said. “And the amount of proof as to why he is unfit is sort of overwhelming.”
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“If you think about that in terms of what has happened to one check, which is Congress, this is another attack on the only other branch that it has served to be a check, which is the courts,” he added.
After Bove’s initial confirmation hearing, Department of Justice (DOJ) whistleblower Erez Reuveni came forward publicly to say that Bove — who was the #3 official at the DOJ prior to his nomination to the federal bench — instructed agency employees to ignore a federal judge’s direct order to not deport immigrants to an El Salvador mega-prison. And last week, a second whistleblower backed up Reuveni’s claim.
Additionally, the Associated Press reported that a third whistleblower on Tuesday called attention to an incident in which Bove discussed his handling of the dismissal of charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (I). Adams had been prosecuted for allegedly accepting bribes from the Turkish government, though charges were ultimately dropped after Adams agreed to assist the Trump administration with deportation efforts in New York. The deal prompted the resignation of U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who is a member of the conservative Federalist Society. The newest whistleblower alleges that a private recording of Bove’s comments on the case directly contradicts his sworn testimony before the Judiciary Committee.
“Just think about it in terms of checks and balances,” Weissmann told Psaki, in reference to Bove’s confirmation. “This is a nail in the coffin of that system that we have had for over 200 years in this country, and he is really exhibit A, and in some ways, I might say exhibit Z to this, because there have been so many.”
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Watch the video of Weissmann’s remarks below, or by clicking this link.
– YouTube www.youtube.com