Judiciary
Whistleblower alleges 3rd Circuit nominee Emil Bove suggested ignoring court orders while at DOJ
Emil Bove, an attorney for President Donald Trump, sits in Manhattan criminal court during Trump’s sentencing in the hush-money case in New York City on Jan. 10, 2025. (Photo by Jeenah Moon/Pool photo via the Associated Press)
A whistleblower lawyer alleges that he was fired after resisting efforts by the Department of Justice and White House leadership to defy court orders in immigration cases “through lack of candor, deliberate delay and disinformation.”
One of the DOJ officials who suggested defying court orders was Emil Bove, who is facing a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday for his nomination to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Philadelphia, according to fired lawyer Erez Reuveni, who summarized his allegations in a June 24 letter released by the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
The New York Times broke the news Tuesday. Other publications that followed with stories include Bloomberg Law, Reuters, Politico and Law360.
Reuveni, then the acting deputy director of the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, is the lawyer who conceded that mistakenly deported Maryland immigrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia should not have been deported to El Salvador in Central America.
Reuveni described a March 14 meeting discussing President Donald Trump’s intent to sign a proclamation allowing the deportation of immigrants who are alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act. Bove, the principal associate deputy attorney general, said planes carrying immigrants being deported had to take off over the weekend, no matter what, according to Reuveni’s account.
“Bove then made a remark concerning the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated,” Reuveni’s letter alleged. “Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘f- – – you’ and ignore any such court order. Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Silence overtook the room.”
Reuveni’s disbelief following the meeting “is now a relic of a different time,” the letter said. As he became involved in cases involving the legality of removals over the next three weeks, the letter said, he witnessed and reported:
• DOJ officials undermining the rule of law by ignoring court orders
• DOJ officials presenting legal arguments with no basis in law
• High-ranking officials of the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security misrepresenting facts presented before courts
• DOJ officials directing Reuveni to misrepresent facts in one of the cases
Reuveni said he was fired because he reported wrongdoing and refused to obey the illegal order.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement he was at the March 14 meeting, and “at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed.”
Blanche said Reuveni’s claims about DOJ leadership were “utterly false.”
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