Allies of Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyer who Trump nominated to the federal bench, are trying to discredit a whistleblower as a “disgruntled former employee,” but several character witnesses aren’t buying it.
Former Justice department attorney Erez Reuveni claims Bove proposed ignoring court orders in March while administration lawyers strategized over legal challenges to Trump’s plan to assert wartime powers to deport immigrants. Reuveni was fired from the Justice Department in April.
Reuveni disclosed a March meeting inside the Justice Department, shortly before Trump formally declared he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to rev up deportations. At the meeting, Reuveni said, Bove "stressed to all in attendance that the planes need to take off no matter what." Bove then said that the group may need to consider telling judges "f——— you" and ignore possible court orders blocking immigrants from being removed from the U.S., according to the document.
READ MORE: Here's the real reason Republicans hate the middle class
In his own testimony, Bove describes Reuveni as a member of an “unelected bureaucracy” trying to subvert the will of the president. But Jon O. Newman, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, described Reuveni to Politico writer Ankush Khardori as “a very intelligent, conscientious, hard-working lawyer.” Reuveni clerked for Newman out of law school.
“He didn’t shy away from giving me an opinion if I asked for it, but he was not one to exaggerate his opinions or take extravagant positions,” Newman told Politico. “He was top flight” and “never over the top.”
Former Justice Department attorney David McConnell describes Reuveni as distinctly non-partisan. While working at the Justice Department for nearly 15 years Reuveni even played an integral role in defending Trump’s immigration policies in his first administration.
“He was very aggressive, very vigorous in defending the policies of the administration under all administrations,” McConnell tells Politico. “He did a lot of cases about border security, defending regulations and policy changes that the Trump administration was trying to achieve.”
READ MORE: 'That's not true and you know that': CNN host shuts down MAGA guest in front of viewers
Reuveni has won awards and commendations over nearly 15 years at the Justice Department, including from Republican appointees in the first Trump administration before being put on leave and then fired after admitting to a federal judge that the administration had deported an immigrant in error.
Politico reports former Federal Programs Branch Director Jennifer Ricketts also vouched for Reuveni’s strong work ethic.
“It remains just stunning to me that they could question how Erez comported himself here. I was honestly proud in reading his recitation — in reading how he had handled himself,” Rickets told Politico. She added that she “was deeply disappointed that others didn’t also speak up.”
Khardori reports Senate Republicans will likely approve Bove just as they have Trump’s other nominees facing “extremely serious allegations of misconduct”, but Reuveni’s former colleagues are standing behind him.
Read more: 'Break a promise': GOP senator swore at Trump in heated exchange over bill
“This was incredibly brave,” one of them told Khardori. “I feel proud of him.”
Read the full Politico report at this link.