by
Angela
Weiss
–
Pool/Getty
Images)
Dating
back
to
his
first
term,
Donald
Trump’s
judicial
nominations
included
nominees
who
were
deeply
unqualified,
deeply
unserious,
and
deeply
problematic.
But
none
of
them
—
not
the
ghost
hunters
or
the
blog
boys
—
managed
to
bring
over
900
former
Justice
Department
lawyers
together
in
protest.
So,
congratulations
to
Emil
Bove
for
setting
a
new
record
for
judicial
nihilism!
“It
is
intolerable
to
us
that
anyone
who
disgraces
the
Justice
Department
would
be
promoted
to
one
of
the
highest
courts
in
the
land,
as
it
should
be
intolerable
to
anyone
committed
to
maintaining
our
ordered
system
of
justice,”
reads
the
letter
signed
by
nearly
1000
DOJ
alumni.
We’d
already
seen
former
judges
speak
out
against
this
nomination,
but
the
sheer
number
of
people
involved
in
this
letter
is
absurd.
It’s
like
the
final
battle
of
Endgame
but
with
stronger
opinions
about
PACER.
Bove,
Trump’s
former
personal
attorney,
faces
his
first
Senate
confirmation
process
as
a
nominee
for
a
Third
Circuit
vacancy.
It’s
a
first
for
the
powerful
DOJ
official
because
he
seized
an
astonishing
amount
of
authority
in
a
role
that
never
required
Senate
confirmation.
Indeed,
he
reportedly
functionally
ran
the
Department
during
those
exciting
times
when
Trump
flirted
with
putting
Matt
Gaetz
—
of
all
people!
—
in
the
Attorney
General’s
chair.
According
to
a
whistleblower
report
from
a
career
DOJ
attorney,
it
was
Bove
telling
government
lawyers
they
should
tell
federal
judges
“fuck
you”
in
response
to
injunctions
barring
the
administration’s
haphazard
deportations.
Like
the
ones
we
know
sent
people
to
El
Salvadoran
slave
camp
by
mistake.
More
damning,
if
less
colorful,
is
the
corroborating
memo
suggesting
that
Bove
ultimately
approved
the
“what
if
we
say
the
law
doesn’t
apply
because
the
plane
was
over
international
waters”
strategy.
And
don’t
forget
the
Eric
Adams
prosecution
that
led
everyone
involved
with
a
functional
conscience
to
resign:
When
Mr.
Bove
directed
prosecutors
in
the
U.S.
Attorney’s
Office
for
the
Southern
District
of
New
York
(SDNY)
and
DOJ’s
Public
Integrity
Section
to
dismiss
the
case
against
New
York
Mayor
Eric
Adams,
his
actions
gave
the
appearance
of
impermissible
political
considerations
stemming
from
President
Trump’s
immigration
agenda.
Former
SDNY
prosecutor
Hagan
Scotten
encapsulated
the
problem
in
his
resignation
letter:
“No
system
of
ordered
liberty
can
allow
the
Government
to
use
the
carrot
of
dismissing
charges,
or
the
stick
of
threatening
to
bring
them
again,
to
induce
an
elected
official
to
support
its
policy
objectives.”
Expletives
and
questionable
ethics
are
features
not
bugs
for
Trump,
now
decades
into
his
pursuit
of
someone
to
replace
Roy
Cohn
in
his
fixer
firmament.
Bove’s
commitment
to
the
dime
store
Roy
Cohn
bit
(down
to
cultivating
the
look)
earned
him
this
nomination,
jumping
the
queue
over
the
army
of
Federalist
Society
hacks
lined
up
for
the
post.
Against
all
odds,
we
look
back
at
the
FedSoc
era
wistfully
because
while
the
judges
were
on
balance
unqualified
and
awful,
several
of
them
are
actually
good!
This
new
era
of
Trump
just
elevating
the
lawyers
who
ingratiate
themselves
to
him
personally
—
Bove,
Pam
Bondi,
Todd
Blanche,
Jeanine
Pirro,
Alina
Habba,
Ed
Martin
—
removes
even
the
fig
leaf
of
independence
from
the
process.
The
Apprentice
but
with
the
rule
of
law
at
stake.
And
when
the
goal
is
“making
the
boss
happy
no
matter
what”
you
end
up
with
“we
can
send
people
to
slave
camp
as
long
as
we
fly
over
the
Gulf
of
Mexico,
stet,
AMERICA”
and
you
eventually
end
up
with
a
court
system
untethered
from
even
the
dubious
intellectual
guardrails
of
“textualism”
or
“originalism.”
It’s
the
era
of
pure
patronage.
Unless
this
Judiciary
Committee
steps
up
and
puts
a
stop
to
it.
They
won’t.
Even
with
900
new
reasons
why
they
should.
(Full
letter
on
next
page…)
Joe
Patrice is
a
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editor
at
Above
the
Law
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Like
A
Lawyer.
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