Trump taps controversial top DOJ official for federal circuit court vacancy
President Donald Trump announced he will nominate Emil Bove, his former personal lawyer-turned-controversial top Department of Justice official, to serve as a federal appeals court judge on Wednesday.
"It is my great honor to nominate Emil Bove to serve as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Emil is a distinguished graduate of Georgetown Law, and served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York for nearly a decade, where he was the Co-Chief of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit.
"Emil is SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone," he added. "He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Emil Bove will never let you down!"
Bove is known for his purge of career law enforcement officials across the DOJ and FBI prior to the arrivals of Senate-confirmed leaders, as well as his role in the DOJ's decision to drop the criminal corruption prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
He will be nominated to serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over district courts in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Bove's nomination means some of his most controversial actions will be put under the spotlight in what could be a bruising confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sources told ABC News that Republicans expect to schedule his confirmation hearing within the coming weeks.
Trump enlisted Bove to join his defense team in 2023 following his indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice by former special counsel Jack Smith. He also aided Trump's defense team in his New York hush money prosecution, which resulted in Trump's conviction of 34 felony counts.
Bove had served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for roughly a decade and worked on several high-profile terrorism, espionage and narcotics cases, including the indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
But Democrats will likely look to scrutinize the controversial early actions he took as the acting official leading the DOJ in Trump's first months in office, when he took aggressive actions to shift law enforcement resources and personnel away from national security and public corruption investigations and toward immigration enforcement.
Bove also faced criticism and resistance from FBI leadership for his initiation of an investigation into hundreds of agents who assisted in the investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which resulted in a dramatic standoff with top career officials whom he accused of "insubordination" for initially withholding the agents' names.
Bove's role in dropping the criminal corruption case against Adams in exchange for his support on immigration enforcement also escalated into a crisis at both the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan.
Multiple members of the trial team as well as top officials in the DOJ's Public Integrity Section resigned after several alleged the arrangement, which would have dismissed the charges against Adams while leaving the potential they could be brought again if he resisted the administration's demands, amounted to a blatant quid pro quo.
The judge overseeing Adams' case ultimately dropped the case permanently while refusing the DOJ's request to dismiss the charges "without prejudice" and issued a blistering assessment that described the department's rationale as "both unprecedented and breathtaking in its sweep."
"Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions," Judge Dale Ho said in his ruling.
