Trump Taps His Own Criminal Defense Attorney For Lifetime Federal Judgeship

WASHINGTON — In a pathetic act of cowardice last year, a handful of Democrats tanked one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, Adeel Mangi.

Mangi, who was a veteran civil litigator in New Jersey, was an objectively impressive and qualified pick. He also happened to be Muslim, so Republicans subjected him to adisgustingmonthslongsmearcampaign aimed at baselessly casting him as an antisemitic terrorist sympathizer.

Despite his horrific treatment, Mangi hung in there, racking up endorsements from major Jewish organizations, and could have been confirmed if Democrats stuck together. But wary of their own reelection bids, a handful of senators chickened out and said they’d vote no. Then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sealed his fate by cutting a deal with Republicans to expedite votes on a batch of judicial nominees — but not Mangi.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday whom he plans to nominate to this seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit: his personal criminal defense attorney, Emil Bove, who is currently known as Trump’s hatchet manat the Justice Department.

“Emil is SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone,” Trump said on social media. “He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Emil Bove will never let you down!”

Bove, 44, was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York before leaving for a private law firm in New Jersey. Todd Blanche, who is Trump’s deputy U.S. attorney general, recruited Bove to help him defend Trump in his 2024 criminal indictment trial. Bove now serves as principal associate deputy attorney general under Blanche.

In his short time at the Justice Department, Bove has been abusing his role to punish people whom Trump considers his political enemies or to push out people who could stand in the way of Trump doing whatever he wants, laws be damned.

Among other things, Bove forced the transfer of top career officials who were seen as a firewall against political inference at the department, which otherwise operates independently from presidential administrations in enforcing laws.

He ordered the firings of federal prosecutors involved in the cases against more than 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Bove also demanded the FBI turn over the names of its agents assigned to Jan. 6 cases, which led to a lawsuit and attorneys for the FBI agents saying they couldn’t trust that the Justice Department wouldn’t give their names to Trump purely so he could retaliate against them.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond and a federal judicial nominations expert, said Bove’s actions at the Justice Department alone “should disqualify him for life tenure on the federal bench.”

Tobias also brought up Bove’s role in the Justice Department’s effort to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams was indicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, but Bove pressured federal prosecutors to drop all charges in what appeared to be a brazen quid pro quo, with the administration dropping the case in exchange for Adams cooperating with Trump’s immigration policies.

Several career attorneys resigned from the Justice Department rather than comply with Bove’s demands, including Danielle Sassoon, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who wrote in her resignation letter that it was her constitutional duty to “prosecute crimes without fear or favor.” The case was ultimately dismissed.

“Bove’s DOJ efforts show that he is a Trump loyalist and lacks the qualifications, especially wisdom and temperament, to serve as a federal judge,” said Tobias.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who recommended Mangi to Biden for this seat in 2023 and unsuccessfully fought for his confirmation, called Bove’s nomination “deeply troubling.”

“It is vital that the federal judiciary in New Jersey be committed to upholding the ideals of independence and objectivity,” Booker said in a joint statement with Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). “On this measure, Emil Bove has fallen short, repeatedly engaging in conduct as a top advisor in Trump’s administration that undermines his credibility as an objective jurist.”

Progressive judicial advocacy groups have denounced Bove’s nomination and urged senators to oppose his confirmation to the 3rd circuit court, which has jurisdiction in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

“Let’s speak plainly: Emil Bove is being nominated to a circuit court seat because of his proven loyalty to Trump,” Maggie Jo Buchanan, interim executive director of Demand Justice, said in a statement.

“Bove has demonstrated time and time again his willingness to use his position to advance even the most dangerous and extreme actions of this administration,” she said. “Any member of that chamber that purports to respect our system of governance must reject this nominee as antithetical to the foundational values of our nation and our courts.”

Caroline Ciccone, the president of Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog group focused on corruption in government, said “every American should be alarmed” by Bove’s nomination.

“Bove has consistently placed his loyalty to Trump over the Constitution,” Ciccone said in a statement. “And his lifetime appointment would all but guarantee Trump and his allies could seek out favorable rulings regardless of how unconstitutional their actions are.”

Trump’s first batch of judicial nominees is getting a hearing next Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but Bove’s nomination hearing hasn’t been announced yet.