Politico reports the rift between President Donald Trump and the Federalist Society is growing with Trump’s nomination of his personal criminal defense attorney Emil Bove to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Up until recently, the alliance between Trump and the conservative legal community helped the president stock the judiciary with Federalist Society judges who handed him sweeping wins at the Supreme Court, from presidential immunity to abortion and affirmative action.
But Politico reports Trump appeared to declare 'civil war' on the Federalist Society after one of his first-term appointees ruled against him in a major challenge to his tariffs. Trump responded with a public tirade against the former chair of the group, Leonard Leo, who Trump called a “sleazebag” who “probably hates America” before blaming the group for “bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations.”
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Trump is now aggravating the growing fissure with the nomination of Bove, a Trump enforcer at the Justice Department. Foremost members of the conservative legal movement argue Bove would be more loyal to Trump than the rule of law.
“His involvement in the [New York Mayor Eric] Adams prosecution is really troubling, and it suggests someone who’s eager to do the bidding of his political masters before seriously looking at legal constraints and ethics,” said Gregg Nunziata, a Federalist Society member who once served as a senior aide to Senate Republicans on judicial nominations.
Politico reports Bove was responsible for dismissing the criminal case against Adams using arguments that were — according to the presiding judge — “unsupported by any objective evidence,” “pretextual” and “unsubstantiated.” Trump appears to have given Adams a pass in order to ensure the mayor’s support for the administration’s immigration crackdown in New York, or perhaps for petty rivalry against the Biden Justice Department, which brought the corruption charges against Adams.
Trump praises Bove as a MAGA foot soldier, claiming “Emil is SMART, TOUGH, and … will … restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
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In that effort Bove dismissed or transferred DOJ career officials and assembled a hit list of FBI agents who had worked on the prosecution of Jan. 6 rioters.
Politico reporter Ankush Khardori argues that the conservative legal establishment that supported Trump’s ascendance is in a position to hamper Trump’s future political appointees, but he added they may end up learning a lesson that “Trump will use you when it suits him, then toss you aside, and perhaps even run you over, the moment you become an impediment to his objectives.”
“You can go from ally to adversary in the blink of an eye,” said Khardori, a former prosecutor. “You can disavow Trump all you want, but you cannot wipe the historical record or abandon your responsibility for what happened in the meantime — or for what comes in the future as a result of your past support. In the law, we call this 'but-for' causation."
He added that the winner of this conflict will likely be determined by whether or not Senate Republicans “fall in line on Bove and confirm him, as they have with virtually every other Trump appointment in his second term.”
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Read the full Politico report at this link.