July 17 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved two of President Donald Trump’s nominees for judicial offices Thursday, despite objections from Democrats who left a business meeting after debate was halted.
Emil Bove, a former member of Trump’s criminal defense team in his fraud case in New York, is the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. Trump nominated him for Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge in Philadelphia, a lifetime appointment.
Jeanine Pirro is a former county judge and Fox News host. She was confirmed as a nominee for U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.
A whistleblower provided documents last week saying that Bove is the person who gave the Trump administration the directive to ignore a court order to stop flights taking migrants to a Salvadoran prison. Bove allegedly said to prepare to tell the courts “f- you.” Bove told Congress he doesn’t remember using the F-word and sidestepped other questions about the incident.
Bove was behind the firings of prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases. He also pushed for the dismissal of bribery charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. This caused a surge of resignations.
Yesterday, more than 900 Justice Department employees signed a letter urging the committee to reject Bove’s nomination.
In the committee meeting, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., tried to convince Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to allow debate. Grassley did not allow Democrats to speak on the Bove nomination.
“You are a good man. You are a decent man, why are you doing this? What is Donald Trump saying to you that are making you do something which is violating the decorum of this committee, the rules of this committee, the decency and the respect that we have each other to at least hear each other out?” The Hill reported Booker said. “This is unjust. This is wrong. It is the further deterioration of this committee’s integrity with a person like this. What are you afraid of?”
Booker then left the meeting with the other Democrats.
Grassley said the accusations present no scandal.
“Even if you accept most of the claims as true, there’s no scandal here.” Grassley said. “Government lawyers aggressively litigating and interpreting court orders isn’t misconduct – it’s what lawyers do.”
The whistleblower is Erez Reuveni, who was fired from his job as the acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation after he disclosed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported in error. He worked for the Department of Justice for 15 years.
Bove will now face a vote from the full Senate.
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