WASHINGTON — Justice Connection today released a video featuring a warning from former federal prosecutors that Emil Bove’s unlawful and unethical actions at the Justice Department should disqualify him from a lifetime appointment as a federal appellate judge.
“Emil Bove got his job at the Justice Department because of his role as Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer. He was nominated to the Third Circuit because he never stopped being the president’s personal lawyer,” said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection. “Emil Bove has overseen the complete disregard for the law and institutional norms that have guided the Justice Department for decades. Putting him on the federal bench would be an affront to judicial independence, the dedicated professionals at DOJ, and the rule of law.”
The video released today shares the perspectives of two former Justice Department lawyers who experienced first-hand Bove’s reprehensible conduct as a top DOJ leader under this administration.
Michael Romano was a Justice Department prosecutor for more than 17 years and served as a deputy chief of the Capitol Siege Section, a unit within the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia responsible for prosecuting cases related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. After the attack, Romano was one of the many prosecutors who partnered with FBI agents to investigate and hold accountable those who violently attacked the nation’s seat of power and injured more than 140 law enforcement officers. In February, Bove called these efforts a “grave national injustice,” and directed the firing of many of these brave prosecutors and FBI agents. He also ordered the FBI to compile a list of the thousands of agents who participated in the investigations throughout the country, seemingly with the intent to eventually fire them. Bove did this despite having prosecuted January 6 cases himself as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, while former President Biden was in office.
“The FBI agents were working cases that they were assigned to work on,” Romano says in the video. “They weren’t political hacks. They weren’t out to get anyone. People could see that this list was setting them up to be fired, too. Based on what I saw at DOJ, Bove cannot be trusted to be impartial on the court of appeals.”
Ryan Crosswell, a former Marine officer and federal prosecutor for more than a decade, was serving in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section when he and all of his colleagues were pressured by Bove to sign a motion to dismiss the Eric Adams case or face termination. The interim U.S. Attorney and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York had already refused to file the motion, saying it was an unlawful quid pro quo. Bove himself admitted the dismissal was not related to the strength of the evidence, and that it was sought to advance the president’s political agenda.
After Bove’s former office refused to comply with his order, he directed the Public Integrity Section to file the motion. Rather than carry out the order, five seasoned public corruption leaders resigned, and Crosswell joined them after witnessing Bove’s unethical campaign to file a motion that the district court later said was “unsupported by any objective evidence,” “pretextual” and “unsubstantiated.”
“From Day One as a federal prosecutor, you’re trained to follow the facts and law, wherever they may lead,” Crosswell says in the video. “We don’t bring charges or dismiss them based on political loyalties. Emil Bove asked us to base a prosecutorial decision not on the facts, not on the law, but on a political calculation.”
These are just two examples of how Bove has consistently placed political loyalty to over the law and Constitution.
His cruel and unlawful treatment of dedicated civil servants has spread fear throughout the Justice Department. Attorneys question how to uphold their professional ethical standards and oath to defend the Constitution when their jobs seem to depend on their willingness to say yes to Bove’s requests, regardless of the consequences.
Bove has demonstrated he lacks the character and impartiality necessary to serve as a neutral arbiter of the facts and the law. The Senate should not confirm him to the federal bench.
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.
