A second whistleblower has stepped forward with allegations that Justice Department (DOJ) official Emil Bove worked to defy court orders.
Bove, the No. 3 official at President Trump’s DOJ, has been nominated for a lifetime appointment to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and is awaiting a final vote in the Senate.
He’s also been accused by DOJ whistleblower Erez Reuveni of suggesting the department’s attorneys may need to tell the courts “f‑‑‑ you” and defy any orders blocking the use of the Alien Enemies Act to send migrants to a prison in El Salvador.
A second whistleblower has now stepped forward to back Reuveni’s claims, saying Bove and other senior DOJ officials were “actively and deliberately undermining the rule of law.”
“Our client, whose identity we are protecting, has provided substantive, internal DOJ documents to the Inspector General, supporting former senior DOJ attorney-turned whistleblower Erez Reuveni’s allegations,” Whistleblower Aid, the group representing the second whistleblower, said in a press release.
“Reuveni’s whistleblower complaint exposes ‘high-level governmental personnel [at the DOJ who] knowingly and willfully defied court orders, directed their subordinate attorneys to make misrepresentations to courts, and engaged in a scheme to withhold relevant information from the court to advance the Administration’s priority of deporting noncitizens.’”
The Trump administration’s decision to send Venezuelan migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador is under the review of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who initially blocked the plan and ordered all flights be halted or turned around.
Instead, the flights took off, bringing some 200 Venezuelan migrants to the facility. They were recently released back to Venezuela.
Boasberg previously found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying his order to immediately halt deportations.
A vote on Bove could come as soon as Tuesday.
Democrats called for a hearing with Reuveni before Bove advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee but were denied by the panel’s Republicans.
“Reporting suggests a second whistleblower is coming forward further corroborating Erez Reuveni’s already-credible allegations of misconduct by Emil Bove—including his ‘f‑‑‑ you’ approach to the courts. If true, this is another damning indictment of a man who should never be a federal judge—and Senate Republicans will bear full responsibility for the consequences if they rubber stamp Mr. Bove’s nomination,” a spokesperson for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The whistleblower’s attorney also did not respond to an inquiry from The Hill.
Reporting from CNN indicates the whistleblower is a former attorney in the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, who worked with Reuveni.
Reuveni was fired after telling a judge in a related case that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported in error.
During his confirmation hearing, Bove, who worked as an attorney for Trump prior to joining the Justice Department, sidestepped questions about whether he used the expletive.
“I’ve certainly said things encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take,” Bove said when asked about the episode.
“I certainly conveyed the importance of the upcoming operation,” he added about the Alien Enemies Act flights.
The whistleblower has filed a claim with the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General, and a Friday statement from attorney Andrew Bakaj indicates they have information about broader efforts to defy court orders.
“What we’re seeing here is something I never thought would be possible on such a wide scale: federal prosecutors appointed by the Trump Administration intentionally presenting dubious if not outright false evidence to a court of jurisdiction in cases that impact a person’s fundamental rights not only under our Constitution, but their natural rights as humans,” Bakaj said.
“What this means is that federal career attorneys who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution are now being pressured to abdicate that promise in favor of fealty to a single person, specifically Donald Trump. Loyalty to one individual must never outweigh supporting and protecting the fundamental rights of those living in the United States.”
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