By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -More than 900 former U.S. Department of Justice employees on Wednesday warned the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee against confirming President Donald Trump’s nominee Emil Bove to serve as an appellate court judge, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The letter comes one day before the panel will vote on whether to advance Bove’s nomination to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to the full Senate.
“We are all alarmed by DOJ leadership’s recent deviations from constitutional principles and institutional guardrails,” the former department employees wrote, adding that he had “disgraced” the department.
“Emil Bove has been a leader in this assault.”
The letter was signed by officials who served from as far back as the Kennedy administration through the current Trump administration, and it was organized by Justice Connection, a new group launched to advocate on behalf of Justice Department workers.
Gates McGavick, a DOJ spokesperson, defended Bove in a statement on Wednesday, saying he is “a highly qualified judicial nominee who has done incredible work at the Department of Justice to help protect civil rights, dismantle Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and Make America Safe Again.”
Bove, a senior DOJ official, has come under fire for using aggressive tactics.
He was involved in decisions to fire probationary prosecutors who handled cases against people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Bove also pressured prosecutors in Manhattan and Washington, D.C. to drop the criminal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, prompting 11 lawyers to resign in protest.
Most recently, a former Justice Department attorney who was fired after admitting that the government erred by deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador filed a whistleblower complaint alleging Bove, using profane language, told DOJ attorneys they could consider defying court orders on a case involving the deportation of Venezuelan migrants.
Bove has denied suggesting that department attorneys could consider defying the courts.
Earlier this week, 76 former federal and state judges also sent a letter to the committee in opposition to Bove’s nomination.
(Reporting by Sarah N. LynchEditing by Marguerita Choy)
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