WASHINGTON – Justice Connection today sent a letter to the members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee signed by more than 900 former Justice Department attorneys, requesting that the committee members rigorously examine Emil Bove’s assault on the Justice Department’s integrity, employees and mission-critical work before voting on his nomination to a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
“Emil Bove has been an architect and enforcer of many of the attacks on DOJ and its employees,” said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection. “His nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals sent shockwaves across DOJ’s workforce, and should alarm all Americans concerned about the Department’s future and the survival of the rule of law.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Bove’s nomination at a hearing on Thursday, July 17. The letter sent today was signed by Justice Department attorneys from the Kennedy Administration to the second Trump Administration. They shared their grave concerns about Bove’s deviations from constitutional principles and institutional guardrails, and the senseless purging of career employees.
“Each of you was elected through a democratic process that, for nearly 250 years, has been anchored by the rule of law,” the letter calls out to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “But the law is only as strong as the institutions that interpret and enforce it; foremost among them, the federal judiciary and the Department of Justice. By elevating those who’ve degraded one of those institutions to lifetime seats on the other, you will have abrogated your duty to ensure that we remain a nation of laws.”
The letter highlights Erez Reuveni’s whistleblower disclosure and corroborating documents that show Bove was deeply involved in DOJ’s defiance of court orders. Bove also directed prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section to dismiss the case against Mayor Eric Adams for what appears to be impermissible political objectives – cratering morale and triggering resignations throughout the Department. And he directed the termination of over a dozen January 6 prosecutors, called for the firings of eight senior FBI officials who were involved in Jan. 6 investigations, and seemingly attempted to fire thousands more FBI officials who worked on investigations related to Jan. 6 – even though he oversaw Jan. 6 cases himself as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
The letter requests that the Senate Judiciary Committee members vote only after exercising their oversight powers to thoroughly and honestly investigate these actions, including by questioning current and former DOJ employees with information about these incidents and others.
“Those of us who proudly defended the rule of law as attorneys at DOJ understand better than anyone the danger of an official who disgraced the Department being elevated to the federal bench,” Young said. “Those who were directly harmed by Bove’s actions are eager and willing to speak to the Senators about what they experienced at his hand, and we urge the committee to hear from them before taking this vote.”
We have expanded our social media presence to Bluesky & X to ensure that Americans understand the grave harm caused by attacks on the Department and its workforce. You can follow us at @justiceconnection.bsky.social and @Justice_CXN.
