'We are watching you': Senators say Trump uses Cabinet officials to intimidate Republicans
U.S. Representative Madeleine Dean (D-PA) and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speak following a House Appropriations Justice Subcommittee hearing on U.S. President Donald Trump's budget request for the Department of Justice, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
The audience at one recent confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee featured some of President Donald Trump's most high-profile officials in the Department of Justice (DOJ). Some Senate Democrats are now saying they were there for one specific reason.
Politico reported Wednesday that during a hearing for Emil Bove — Trump's former personal attorney who he has since nominated for a coveted lifetime appointment as a federal circuit court judge — Attorney General Pam Bondi was spotted in the audience, along with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (another former Trump lawyer). The two top DOJ officials didn't speak in the hearing itself, but Democrats confided to Politico that their presence was a powerful statement on its own, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) arguing that they were there to "whip the Republicans into shape, to make sure that they toe the line."
"They were there to send a message to Republicans: We are watching you," Blumenthal said. "They were there to watch members of this committee, the Republicans, whom they expect simply to fall into line."
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Bove's appointment to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is particularly controversial following a recent report in which a whistleblower alleged that Bove told DOJ employees to ignore federal court orders that struck down Trump's policies. Democrats also grilled Bove on his record at the DOJ where he currently serves as principal associate deputy attorney general, and his role in firing prosecutors who investigated January 6 insurrectionists and his decision to end the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“Bove has led the effort to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president’s enemies,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday. “Having earned his stripes as a loyalist to this president, he’s been rewarded with a lifetime nomination.”
“I am not anybody’s henchman,” Bove said. “I am not an enforcer. I am a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this.”
If confirmed, the 44 year-old former Trump lawyer would serve for the remainder of his life on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which oversees federal districts in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the U.S. Virgin Islands. And as a circuit court judge, Bove would have the ability to potentially overturn lower court decisions that get appealed to his court. He would also be just one step down from the U.S. Supreme Court, making him a potential candidate for the nation's highest court depending on his pending confirmation vote.
Click here to read Politico's report in full.
