The man who ordered Justice Department staff to ignore judges to speed up deportations is now a federal judge himself.
On Tuesday, the Senate voted 50–49 to confirm senior Justice Department official Emil Bove, formerly Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, for a lifetime seat on the the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats in voting against Bove.
Last month, it was revealed that Bove, while orchestrating the extrajudicial deportations of hundreds of men to El Salvador, “stressed to all in attendance that planes needed to take off no matter what,” although he was well aware of “the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated.”
“Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such court order,” according to whistleblower Erez Reuveni’s report. But instead of having his nomination rescinded for obvious corruption and insubordination, Bove will now hold a powerful judicial position until the day he dies. This is also the same man who fired prosecutors for investigating January 6 and accused the FBI of “insubordination” for not snitching on staffers who worked on the investigation. As a New York state prosecutor, he was described by colleagues as someone who could not “be bothered to treat lesser mortals with respect or empathy.”
“He is a Trumpian henchman—the extreme of the extreme of the extreme. He is openly hostile to the rule of law. He is fundamentally opposed to democratic norms. He lacks the temperament to serve as a jurist,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “And above all, Mr. Bove is religiously obedient to Donald Trump.”
“Shame on you,” Schumer continued after the vote. “This is a dark, dark day.”