Overview

• A whistleblower complaint by former DOJ lawyer Erez Reuveni says Emil Bove told colleagues in March to tell federal judges “f— you” and ignore court orders blocking the deportation of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act.
• Bove, who has served as principal associate deputy attorney general and previously defended President Trump, is nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and faces a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.
• Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who attended the meeting, denied the allegations as “utterly false” and said no one suggested defying court orders.
• Reuveni was placed on leave and later fired after he acknowledged in court that an immigrant had been wrongly deported to El Salvador and refused to file what he considered a “frivolous and untrue” appeal brief.
• Senate Judiciary Committee top Democrat Dick Durbin described the claims as evidence of a broader pattern undermining the Justice Department’s commitment to the rule of law and urged thorough review of Bove’s confirmation.