President Donald Trump has nominated Emil Bove, a former member of his legal defense team, to a position within the federal judiciary.
Democrats immediately lost their minds, and many of them have stated they will boycott his final confirmation vote in protest.
If Democrats want to block Bove, they may want to reconsider, especially given the resistance to his nomination that has come from some on the right.
When Trump won the 2024 election, it was no surprise at all to see Bove, a valued member of his defense team and now a DOJ official, nominated for a role in the federal judiciary.
Trump wants Bove in place in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
After nominating Bove, Trump posted to Truth Social, "He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Trump further claimed that Bove is "SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone,” but I would say that is not exactly true, considering the resistance I am seeing from not only the left, but some on the right as well.
Todd Blanche is among those hoping that Bove makes it through, recently penning an op-ed for Fox News to make the case for his colleague.
In part, Blanche wrote, “In recent weeks, some public commentary has accused the Department of Justice of defying court orders and insinuated that Emil Bove’s confirmation will undermine the rule of law. Nothing could be further from the truth."
Blanche continued, “The Department of Justice follows court orders -- even when those orders are legally unsound or deeply flawed. And Emil is the most capable and principled lawyer I have ever known. His legal acumen is extraordinary, and his moral clarity is above reproach. The Senate should swiftly confirm him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.”
There are some who believe that you need to rubber-stamp every nomination, which is what we saw from Democrats when Biden was in office. There are others, however, who believe every candidate needs to be scrutinized regardless of who is in the White House, and I am among them.
Ryan Crosswell also wrote an op-ed on Bove, begging Republicans to block the nomination.
Croswell opened his op-ed by stating, “Confirming Bove would mean redrawing that line to ignore serious concerns about his truthfulness under oath. I was in the room when he made statements that my colleagues and I understood as threats -- meant to pressure us into signing a motion to dismiss the federal criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams."
He continued, “Mr. Bove has since denied making any such statements in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but those denials do not reflect what actually took place.”
I have not been happy with some of the recent moves from the DOJ, but it is only doing what Trump asked, so I am not sure that I would disqualify Bove on that alone. I would say, once Alina Habba was removed as lead counsel, Trump’s defense team did far better, actually brilliantly, down the stretch. Thus, if we are going only on Bove’s legal knowledge, it would be an easy “yes” for me. However, do we also weigh the actions of dropping charges against someone like Adams, who, in my opinion, was clearly guilty? That is the question the GOP must ask itself when voting on whether to confirm Bove.
