The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee has obtained documentation backing up a former federal prosecutor’s claim that Emil Bove – a top Justice Department official – crudely told others in the department to ignore court orders before a controversial immigration enforcement situation in March.
The whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, an immigration law specialist who was fired from the department, previously told Congress and executive branch inspectors general Bove had held a meeting with Justice Department lawyers the day before the Trump administration sent planes with migrants to El Salvador under the controversial Alien Enemies Act.
Bove is a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump who is now up for a lifetime appointment to an appellate judgeship.
The communications primarily bolster claims Reuveni made to Congress and independent investigators as Bove’s judgeship nomination heads toward a vote. Bove has become one of the most controversial legal nominees of the second Trump presidency, with little judicial record that would be typical of an appellate bench nominee and ethical questions arising about both his leadership during immigration cases and his pushing within the department for the dismissal of the criminal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
In the March meeting, Reuveni said Bove “stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘f**k you’” and ignore any orders to stop the hasty deportation of migrants.
Later, a federal judge ordered the department to turn the planes around. The Trump administration’s actions in court are now part of a contempt proceeding, which is currently on hold. The case is one of the most high-profile reflections so far of how the Justice Department has responded to orders from lower-court judges, who have been the subject of Trump’s repeated and public verbal attacks, and its aggressive immigration policy of using a presidential wartime power to send migrants to a prison in El Salvador with little to no due process.
CNN has asked Justice Department officials for comment. Previously, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who works closely with Bove in department leadership, called the claims Reuveni was making about Bove “false.” He also attacked media reporting on Reuveni’s whistleblower complaint to authorities.
During Bove’s confirmation hearing last month, he told the committee he didn’t recall making the alleged remark.
Bove isn’t personally part of the latest communications Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the committee, has obtained. Instead, the communications appear to capture chatter among lower-level prosecutors about him, with references to the alleged comment.
“Guess we are going to say f**k you to the court,” one text message between government lawyers says.
“This doesn’t end with anything but a nationwide injunction,” another text says, “and a decision point on f**k you.”
The documents obtained by Durbin include messages, email exchanges and documents from Reuveni, after Durbin had asked for documentation to substantiate Reuveni’s claims.
Durbin, in a statement Thursday, defended Reuveni as a “loyal public servant.” He shared the allegations about Bove “out of principle — not politics,” Durbin said.
The communications also appear to show that Reuveni and others doubted another top Justice Department lawyer’s representations to a court were truthful, and that they repeatedly questioned claims a Salvadoran man mistakenly sent to El Salvador was influential in a gang, as the administration said.
“These episodes can only lead to one conclusion: Emil Bove belongs nowhere near the federal bench,” Durbin said. “This is about more than a random f-bomb. This is a declaration of defiance of our courts at the highest level of our government by a man who now seeks a lifetime appointment to one of the highest courts in our land.”
The Senate Democrat added, “If Mr. Bove simply ‘can’t recall’ any of this and demands his subordinates compromise their professional obligations, he doesn’t have the moral judgment or character to serve in a lifetime position on the federal court.”
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