Bove
(Photo
by
Kevin
Dietsch/Getty
Images)
Ed.
note:
Please
welcome
Liz
Dye
back
to
the
pages
of
Above
the
Law.
Subscribe
to
her
Substack,
“Law
and
Chaos,” here.
“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,”
the
president
screeched
out
on
social
media
on
May
28.
“Emil
is
SMART,
TOUGH,
and
respected
by
everyone.
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!”
So
much
for
the
wages
of
sin.
The
president’s
personal
lawyer
spent
the
past
five
months
disgracing
the
Justice
Department
and
his
professional
oath.
He
is
currently
the
subject
of
a
whistleblower
complaint
alleging
that
he
deliberately
defied
court
orders
and
instructed
DOJ
lawyers
to
do
the
same.
And
for
his
loyalty,
he’s
being
rewarded
with
lifetime
tenure
on
the
appellate
bench.
Worst
villain
origin
story
ever
Emil
Bove,
III
began
his
career
at
the
Southern
District
of
New
York,
where
he
was
by
all
accounts
a
competent
prosecutor.
His
management
style
left
something
to
be
desired,
however,
and
he
was
denied
promotion
for
“abusive”
behavior
toward
his
subordinates.
In
2022,
he
left
the
DOJ
for
private
practice,
and
the
following
year
teamed
up
with
Todd
Blanche,
another
SDNY
alum
who
left
the
white-shoe
law
firm
Cadwalader,
Wickersham
&
Taft
to
represent
Donald
Trump
in
his
criminal
cases.
The
only
one
that
went
to
trial
was
the
Manhattan
prosecution,
where
a
jury
found
their
client
guilty
of
34
counts
of
creating
a
false
business
record.
But
Trump
values
obedience
over
competence,
and
so
he
gave
Blanche
and
Bove
the
top
jobs
at
DOJ,
serving
under
another
of
his
personal
lawyers,
Pam
Bondi.
Heel
turn
Back
in
2021,
Bove
worked
January
6
cases
at
SDNY.
But
one
of
the
first
things
he
did
on
his
return
to
the
Department
was
to
launch
a
mass
purge
of
prosecutors
who
worked
January
6
cases.
“I
do
not
believe
the
current
leadership
of
the
Justice
Department
can
trust
these
FBI
employees
to
assist
in
implementing
the
President’s
agenda
faithfully,”
he
wrote
in
a
memo
obtained
by
the
Washington
Post.
As
Trump’s
personal
lawyer,
Bove
signed
his
name
to
dozens
of
briefs
lobbing
baseless
charges
of
politicization
at
the
DOJ.
But
once
ensconced
at
Main
Justice,
he
set
about
reordering
the
DOJ
to
achieve
Trump’s
political
ends.
He
tried
without
success
to
gin
up
criminal
charges
in
connection
with
billions
of
dollars
in
greenbanking
funds
allocated
by
Congress
and
disbursed
in
the
final
year
of
Biden’s
presidency.
He
threatened
to
arrest
local
officials
who
exercise
their
rights
under
the
the
Tenth
Amendment
not
to
cooperate
with
federal
immigration
mandates.
And
he
blew
up
the
prosecution
of
New
York
City
Mayor
Eric
Adams
in
hopes
of
blackmailing
the
elected
Democrat
to
enact
the
administration’s
immigration
priorities.
On
February
10,
he
ordered
Danielle
Sassoon,
the
then-acting
US
Attorney
for
SDNY,
to
dismiss
the
pending
prosecution
of
the
mayor
for
taking
bribes
from
Turkish
officials.
Bove
ordered
her
to
seek
a
dismissal
without
prejudice,
allowing
the
government
to
hold
the
threat
of
re-indictment
over
Adams
if
he
failed
to
do
what
they
asked,
particularly
when
it
came
to
immigration.
“If
a
criminal
prosecution
cannot
be
used
to
punish
political
activity,
it
likewise
cannot
be
used
to
induce
or
coerce
such
activity,”
she
wrote
in
her
resignation
letter.
“Threatening
criminal
prosecution
even
to
gain
an
advantage
in
civil
litigation
is
considered
misconduct
for
an
attorney.”
He
responded
with
an
absolutely
deranged
letter,
defending
the
propriety
of
a
political
quid
pro
quo
with
a
criminal
defendant
and
accusing
Sassoon
of
insubordination
and
dereliction
of
duty.
But
it
turns
out
that
behind
the
scenes,
Bove
was
doing
even
more
crazy
illegal
shit
to
carry
out
the
president’s
agenda.
Whistle
while
you
work
On
June
24,
the
New
York
Times
published
a
whistleblower
complaint
filed
by
former
Justice
Department
lawyer
Erez
Reuveni.
Reuveni
served
as
Acting
Deputy
Director
for
the
Office
of
Immigration
Litigation
until
April
5,
when
he
was
fired
for
telling
the
truth
to
a
federal
judge
in
the
case
of
Kilmar
Abrego
Garcia,
the
Maryland
man
wrongfully
deported
to
El
Salvador.
Reuveni
refused
to
say
that
Abrego
was
a
known
terrorist
(he
wasn’t)
and
argue
that
this
voided
the
immigration
judge’s
order
staying
his
removal
as
a
matter
of
law
(it
didn’t).
But
before
he
was
fired,
Reuveni
witnesssed
a
shocking
pattern
of
disregard
for
court
orders
by
leadership
at
the
DOJ,
particularly
Bove.
Bove
was
instrumental
in
structuring
the
rollout
of
the
Alien
Enemies
Act
proclamation
so
as
to
ensure
that
the
men
renditioned
to
CECOT
in
El
Salvador
could
never
get
due
process.
According
to
Reuveni,
Bove
instructed
the
DOJ
get
it
done,
even
if
they
had
to
disregard
court
orders:
Bove
then
made
a
remark
concerning
the
possibility
that
a
court
order
would
enjoin
those
removals
before
they
could
be
effectuated.
Bove
stated
that
DOJ
would
need
to
consider
telling
the
courts
“fuck
you”
and
ignore
any
such
court
order.
Mr.
Reuveni
perceived
that
others
in
the
room
looked
stunned,
and
he
observed
awkward,
nervous
glances
among
people
in
the
room.
Silence
overtook
the
room.
Mr.
Reuveni
and
others
were
quickly
ushered
out
of
the
room.
And
in
fact
the
DOJ
did
disregard
Judge
James
Boasberg’s
order
to
turn
the
planes
around.
Reuveni
says
that
Deputy
Assistant
AG
Drew
Ensign
lied
in
court
when
he
said
he
did
not
know
if
and
when
planes
of
detainees
were
taking
off.
Reuveni
alleges
that
“Ensign
had
been
present
in
the
previous
day’s
meeting
when
Emil
Bove
stated
clearly
that
one
or
more
planes
containing
individuals
subject
to
the
AEA
would
be
taking
off
over
the
weekend
no
matter
what.”
Bove
is
credited
with
coming
up
with
the
plan
to
allege
that
the
DOJ
complied
with
Judge
Boasberg’s
order
because
the
planes
were
out
of
US
air
space
by
the
time
the
judge
put
his
oral
order
in
writing.
Notably
Bove
refused
to
put
his
name
on
the
motion
making
this
fakakta
argument
on
the
public
docket.
And
Ensign
is
now
smack
in
the
middle
of
Judge
Boasberg’s
contempt
inquiry.
Bove
also
encouraged
the
DOJ
to
defy
another
court’s
immigration
order
in
Massachusetts.
In
that
case,
Judge
Brian
Murphy
barred
the
Department
of
Homeland
Security
from
deporting
immigrants
to
third
countries
without
notice
and
opportunity
to
object
under
the
Convention
Against
Torture.
The
government
repeatedly
defied
this
order,
including
in
one
episode
where
DHS
flew
detainees
to
Gitmo
and
handed
them
over
to
the
Department
of
Defense
to
transport
them
to
CECOT.
Reuveni
does
not
say
if
Bove
was
the
brain
genius
behind
the
plan
to
argue
that
this
did
not
violate
the
court’s
order,
since
DOD
wasn’t
a
party
to
the
case,
and
no
DHS
employees
were
on
the
plane
to
El
Salvador.
But
he
says
that
Bove
was
pissed
that
he
tried
to
comply
with
the
court
order
to
ascertain
how
this
violation
had
occurred:
Mr.
Reuveni
received
phone
call
from
Acting
AAG
Roth
in
which
Roth
relayed
that
Bove
was
very
unhappy
that
Mr.
Reuveni
had
contacted
counsel
at
various
agencies
to
ascertain
whether
DOJ
had
violated
court
order
Roth
conveyed
that
Mr.
Reuveni
should
stop
emailing
agency
counsel
on
the
matter
to
instead
communicate
by
phone
only
where
possible.46
Mr.
Reuveni
understood
this
instruction
to
be
based
on
leadership’s
aim
to
avoid
generating
written
material
subject
to
disclosure
through
FOIA.
Third
Circuit,
here
he
comes!
On
Wednesday,
June
25,
Bove
appeared
before
the
Senate
Judiciary
Committee,
which
is
considering
his
nomination
to
the
Third
Circuit.
He
opened
by
insisting,
“I
am
not
anybody’s
henchman,
I
am
not
an
enforcer.
I’m
a
lawyer
from
a
small
town,
who
never
expected
to
be
in
an
arena
like
this.”
That
is
horseshit,
of
course.
No
one
gets
to
“an
arena
like
this”
without
a
healthy
dose
of
ambition.
Note
that
Bove’s
aw
shucks
modesty
didn’t
extend
to
telling
the
White
House
that
he’d
be
a
more
appropriate
nominee
the
US
District
Court.
And
although
his
tone
during
the
hearing
was
measured,
his
willingness
to
twist
the
truth
was
on
full
display
Asked
about
the
Adams
case,
Bove
pointed
to
the
order
dismissing
the
charges
as
proof
that
he’d
behaved
appropriately.
In
reality,
the
Justice
Department’s
refusal
to
prosecute
left
the
court
little
choice.
And
Judge
Dale
Ho
denied
the
DOJ’s
request
to
dismiss
without
prejudice,
because
allowing
the
Trump
administration
to
reap
the
benefits
of
a
corrupt
bargain
would
be
“difficult
to
square
with
the
words
engraved
above
the
front
entrance
of
the
United
States
Supreme
Court:
‘Equal
Justice
Under
Law.’”
Bove
denied
telling
subordinates
to
defy
a
court
order,
but
said
he
just
plum
couldn’t
remember
if
he’d
told
them
to
give
the
bird
to
a
federal
judge.
Over
and
over
he
simply
refused
to
answer
questions
based
on
spurious
claims
about
the
deliberative
process
privilege.
But,
he
assured
the
senators,
all
was
on
the
up
and
up,
even
if
he
couldn’t
commit
to
recusing
from
cases
involving
his
former
client
Donald
Trump.
And
if
any
Republican
senator
might
be
tempted
to
vote
no,
he
brought
out
the
big
guns.
Alan
Dershowitz,
late
of
Harvard
Law
(and
his
marbles),
sent
a
letter
to
the
Judiciary
Committee
gushing
that
“Mr.
Bove’s
superior
character,
demeanor
and
diligence
are
evident
throughout
his
time
as
Principal
Associate
Deputy
Attorney
General,
as
well
as
in
private
practice.”
FACTS
NOT
IN
EVIDENCE!
But
when
you’ve
got
the
votes,
it
doesn’t
really
matter.
Subscribe
to
read
more
at
Law
and
Chaos….
Liz
Dye
lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos Substack
and podcast.
You
can
subscribe
to
her
Substack
by
clicking
the
logo:
