Senate Moves to Confirm Bove as Third Whistleblower Emerges (1)

Justice Department official Emil Bove is poised to be installed as a federal appellate judge despite whistleblower allegations over his handling of immigration litigation against the Trump administration and the dismissal of criminal charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a Judiciary Committee member who isn’t running for reelection next year and has broken with his party in the past, said Tuesday that he still supports Bove “at this point” for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Bove is teed up to receive a confirmation vote in the Republican-controlled Senate as early as Tuesday. Senate Republicans can lose up to three votes, with Vice President J.D. Vance to break the tie, to advance nominees on the floor.

Two Senate Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, have already indicated they’re opposed to Bove after voting against him in a procedural vote to move forward with his nomination.

Tillis, whose decision to not back President Donald Trump’s pick for DC US attorney sank the nomination, took issue with the “eleventh-hour” timing of allegations surfacing after Bove’s nomination hearing at the Judiciary Committee, though he said he’d be open to speaking with a whistleblower if his staff recommends it.

Robert Luther III, a law professor who previously worked on judicial nominations at the White House Counsel’s Office during the first Trump administration, criticized the latest whistleblowers for making their claims anonymously.

“The whistleblower process is important, but when you are unwilling to identify yourself publicly, you really put the nominee at a disadvantage to disprove the allegation,” Luther said. “If I’m weighing a vote and someone is unwilling to stand behind their claims, I would be disinclined to give those claims any weight.”

Still, Gregg Nunziata, former chief nominations counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee who previously worked for Senate Republicans, said senators should “feel an obligation to give deep consideration” to the latest claims that Bove is unfit to be a judge. He also called on both parties not to provide partisan “knee-jerk votes” for and against Trump’s nominees.

“It’s a dismaying turn for, I think, Senate Republicans, for the conservative legal movement,” said Nunziata, now executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law, a conservative legal group critical of Trump. “This is a moment that really is precedent setting.”

Whistleblower Complaints

Bove’s nomination is progressing amid whistleblower allegations accusing Bove of misconduct in his prior roles at the Justice Department.

A disclosure by a third whistleblower, the most recent anonymous claim unveiled, relates to Bove’s decision to dismiss criminal charges against Adams while at the Manhattan US attorney’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Washington Post first reported on that whistleblower disclosure.

Two other whistleblowers—fired Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni and another former department lawyer proceeding anonymously—have alleged that Bove suggested government lawyers disregard court orders in a challenge to the Trump administration’s policy to send alleged gang members to a Salvadoran prison.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) met with lawyers for the most recent whistleblower on Monday and Tuesday to discuss allegations and review evidence, according to Grassley’s office.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, where Bove would sit as a judge if confirmed, has also reviewed documentation from the most recent whistleblower related to this disclosure, according to his office.

A spokesperson for Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said the latest disclosure is “another damning indictment of a man who should never be a federal judge.”

“Senate Republicans will bear full responsibility for the consequences if they rubber stamp Mr. Bove’s nomination,” the spokesperson said.

Booker and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), another Judiciary Committee member, asked the Justice Department’s acting inspector general in a Monday letter to clarify if the office is conducting any investigation related to Bove, given the impending vote.

Justice Department officials have denied Reuveni’s account, and Bove has repeatedly denied accusations of misconduct and corruption while serving in the Justice Department.