Is Emil Bove the most unethical judicial nominee in modern history?
President Trump nominated Emil Bove, his former personal attorney, to be a federal judge on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals — one of the most powerful judicial roles in the country. Announcing his nomination on May 28, Trump described Bove as "SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone."
But an explosive new whistleblower disclosure released Tuesday alleges that, in his current position as a senior official in the Department of Justice (DOJ), Bove is willing to ignore federal law to give Trump what he wants.
The 35-page letter was written by lawyers representing Erez Reuveni, formerly the DOJ's Acting Deputy Director for the Office of Immigration Litigation. In that role, Reuveni was tasked with defending the Trump administration's plan, under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), to summarily deport undocumented immigrants to a notorious Salvadoran prison known for torture and human rights abuses.
During a March 14, 2025, meeting, Bove told Reuveni and others that "one or more planes containing individuals subject to the AEA would be taking off over the weekend" – meaning Saturday, March 15 and Sunday, March 16. According to the whistleblower disclosure, Bove stressed "the planes needed to take off no matter what." During the discussion, Bove raised "the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated." In that eventuality, Bove stated that the “DOJ would need to consider telling the courts 'fuck you' and ignore any such court order."
On March 15, the ACLU "filed suit on behalf of five Venezuelan men facing imminent deportation under the AEA and moved for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to prevent their removal" and the removal of other similarly situated immigrants. During the hearing, two flights destined for El Salvador took off — one at 5:26 p.m. and the second at 5:45 p.m.
After listening to arguments from both sides, the judge sided with the plaintiffs at approximately 6:30 p.m. Around 6:48 p.m., Reuveni emailed officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and advised them "the judge specifically ordered us to not remove anyone in the class, and to return anyone in the air." Over the next hour, Reuveni sent numerous emails with the same information to DOJ and DHS officials. He received no response.
The court issued a written order "memorializing its TRO" at 7:23 p.m.
On March 16 at 12:23 a.m., Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign told Reuveni that Bove had decided the flights could continue to El Salvador and "no violation of the court order had occurred because the two planes left U.S. airspace before the court's written …order." Further, "Bove had advised DHS that under the court order, it was permissible to deplane individuals on the flights that departed U.S. airspace" before the written order was issued.
An order from a federal judge is binding regardless of whether it has been issued in writing. Bove followed through on his threat to ignore the courts so that the Trump administration could complete its scheduled deportations.
This is not the only time Bove has ignored the law or acted unethically to serve Trump.
A corrupt bargain
On September 24, 2024, New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on "bribery, campaign finance, and conspiracy offenses." The detailed indictment alleged that Adams "abused his power and position for nearly a decade, obtaining personal benefits and illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals, and others, giving them undue influence over him." In return for "illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel," the indictment alleges that Adams used his official position to benefit his patrons, including pressuring "the New York City Fire Department to facilitate the opening of a foreign government’s Manhattan skyscraper that had not passed a fire inspection."
After Trump took office, Bove directed then-acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon to dismiss the charges against Adams. Bove suggested, without evidence, that Adams was indicted because he "criticized the prior Administration’s immigration policies." Bove said that, in exchange for the dismissal, Adams would provide support for the Trump administration's immigration policy.
Sassoon refused to comply with Bove's directive. Instead, she submitted a resignation letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, stating that dismissing the charges against Adams was "inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts." Sassoon said Bove appeared to be arguing that "Adams should receive leniency for federal crimes solely because he occupies an important public position and can use that position to assist in the Administration’s policy priorities."
A second federal prosecutor, Hagan Scotten, also refused Bove's order. In his resignation letter, Scotten wrote, "[O]ur laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way."
Ultimately, unable to find another federal government attorney to do his bidding, Bove was forced to appear in court and argue for dismissal himself.
Bove sought to dismiss the charges "without prejudice," presumably so the Trump administration could use the threat of refiling the charges to force Adams to comply with its directives. A judge granted the dismissal, but with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be refiled. The judge decided he could not force the Department of Justice to prosecute the case, but found the legal rationale advanced by Bove was "fundamentally incompatible with equal justice under the law."
Purging DOJ staff who upheld the law after January 6
Bove issued two memos that described the successful prosecution of hundreds of people who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, as a "grave national injustice." In furtherance of an executive order signed by Trump, Bove fired DOJ staffers who were involved in upholding the law.
One memo that Bove sent to DOJ staff terminated dozens of prosecutors who had worked on cases related to January 6. According to Bove, the employees he targeted had been hired under the Biden administration as temporary employees, but converted to permanent status. Bove said that these employees were preventing Ed Martin, who was an acting U.S. attorney at the time and has since been made the U.S. pardon attorney, from fully staffing his office. Martin’s U.S. attorney appointment failed because of his ties to January 6 rioters. As pardon attorney, Martin has said that he will look into pardoning Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and the men who plotted to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
In another memo, Bove ordered the termination of eight FBI employees whom he accused of “actively participating in” the so-called “grave national injustice” of investigating January 6. Bove also demanded a list of every FBI employee across the country who had participated at any point in any investigations related to January 6 so that he could “determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.” In March, a top FBI official who pushed back on firing agents who did work related to January 6 was forced out of the agency.
A toxic work environment
Before working as a defense attorney for Trump and being handed powerful DOJ positions, Bove garnered a reputation for lashing out and creating an “abusive” work environment as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
In February, Politico reported that an internal DOJ inquiry into his behavior nearly led to him being demoted from his post as co-chief of the terrorism and international narcotics unit at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. As co-chief, Bove was known to belittle subordinates and treat FBI agents working the unit's cases harshly.
According to Politico, Bove ultimately kept his position in part because his unit had recently overseen a failed case in which the judge criticized Bove and his co-chief’s supervision, and while it was not believed that Bove was primarily responsible for the failure, the U.S. Attorney’s office thought demoting Bove would be bad optics.
Thank you for this important reporting. The unqualified and morally and ethically bankrupt people that the Toxic Bozo has appointed to the federal bench will do grave damage long after he's finally gone. Eileen Cannon, his judge in Florida, single handedly denied the American people any chance of justice with regard to Donald's theft and dissemination of classified documents after his first disastrous term. His Supreme Court judges handed him absolute immunity from all of his past and future crimes while ripping away the right to bodily autonomy for women. And this crew is not done yet. We need to vigorously oppose and block his appointments with everything we have.
We shall see if Trump is able to bully this thug thru. Given the cowardice of the Republicans in the Senate, I would guess that he will. However, given his tanking poll numbers, the screaming unpopularity of his Big Bullshit Bill and the abject failure of his Iran attack, Republican senators may sense weakness and reject Bove before it's too late.