Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday excoriated Emil Bove, a top Trump Justice Department official and nominee for a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that he was uniquely unqualified for the seat on the federal bench.
Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee along with four other district court nominees. His nomination has come under fire this week after allegations that he suggested flouting court orders to fulfill Trump’s political agenda.
His nomination has become the first flashpoint judicial confirmation battle of Trump’s second term, as the president and his allies have become increasingly hostile to judges who have ruled against him.
Durbin argued that Bove’s nomination was in a ‘category all of his own’ compared to the kind of judicial conservatives Trump had nominated to the federal bench in his first term. He pointed to, among other things, B’ts role in ousting DOJ staffers who worked on cases tied to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Durbin also pointed to Bove’s dismissal of federal corruption charges against New York City mayor Eric Adams around the time that Adams agreed to cooperate with the administration’s immigration enforcement at the city’s Rikers jail.