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Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, I oppose the appointment of Emil Bove to serve on the Federal court.

You know, there are two issues. One for any judge is temperament-- absolutely essential--where that judge has to step back and not be partisan, has to be fair to all litigants. Emil Bove totally lacks the temperament to serve on the Federal judiciary under any President, under any administration.

In 2018, the Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of New York sent a letter to the Southern District leadership detailing incredibly detailed complaints from fellow defense attorneys about Bove. These are people that worked with him in a professional capacity. This was before Bove was the political figure that he has become. They described him gratuitously as a person who was vindictive, a prosecutor version of a drunk driver, and needing adult supervision. It was because of his conduct towards the people he was working with in the judicial system.

The reality that we all know is that in the judicial system, fierce as you may be as a prosecutor, determined as you may be as a defense attorney, impartial as you want to be as a judge, everyone has to cooperate to do their job, not interfere with others, and to be supportive of those who are doing the work with you--your fellow prosecutors, your fellow defense attorneys. Bove couldn't do that. He does not have the temperament to serve in a high judicial position.

Second and really most importantly, Bove does not have respect for the rule of law.

If you are in a litigation situation, as prosecutors are, as trial attorneys are, as public defense attorneys are, you have an obligation to serve your client fiercely, energetically. But what you have as a shared responsibility, no matter which role you have in the litigation process, the judicial process, is a respect for the rule of law and an obligation to act in accordance with the ethics that apply to you in your service.

On June 24, Erez Reuveni, who was a well-respected supervisor--and this is about the Bove character--who had defended Trump's policies in his first administration--this is a person who was supportive of many of the policies that then-President Trump was advocating. He came forward with a very credible whistleblower claim that Bove advocated for violating court orders.

Bove reportedly said that the Department of Justice should be prepared to tell courts whose decisions they did not like to ``f off.'' He said that, and he meant it. That is the truth. And that was gratuitous but very reflective of the orientation that Mr. Bove has towards the law, and it is that the law is incidental. His goals and the goals of his now-client President Trump are the only things that matter.

That also happened subsequently, just very recently, with the transfer of individuals to El Salvador in violation of Chief Judge Boasberg's oral order in J.G.G. v. Trump. That is the case where the judge gave an order stopping the deportation, and Bove was complicit in having that plane fly and actually do what was directly in conflict with the order.

He also, as we know, instructed prosecutors to drop the criminal case against the New York City mayor Mr. Adams. It was a blatant quid pro quo.

Bove has been an active participant in political payback against the January 6 prosecutors and FBI agents who were simply doing their jobs.

By the way, this is so appalling to me. You are a prosecutor. You know that if a prosecutor is assigned a case in a large office like the Southern District of New York or in the Washington district, the prosecutor's job is to prosecute that case.

Well, there were a number of prosecutors who were assigned to prosecute the January 6 cases, and, as you know, Mr. President, that included people who came in here and started beating up on cops. That is what they did. And those prosecutors did their job and were then fired by Bove--no loyalty to people who had the same job and the same responsibility as he did.

He also--Mr. Bove--sought the names of all FBI employees who worked on investigations into January 6. You know, he stated that was part of an investigation about the weaponization of the FBI against the January 6 rioters.

So he is part of the rewriting, the whitewashing, of the history of January 6 that is the favored narrative of President Trump.

But bottom line, Bove has made it clear that he works for his political boss, and that is the President. And the question is not just about Bove. The question is for us in the Senate who have this real responsibility. We have our partisan differences. We have our honest policy differences. But we have a shared responsibility when it comes to the nomination of a person for a Federal judicial position to evaluate their qualifications for the job.

And first and foremost among the qualifications is that that individual has to be someone who sees as his or her client the Constitution of the United States and the statutory rights and obligations that citizens and companies in this country have.

And what President Trump has made very clear--uncomfortable as this may be to acknowledge for many of us, many of my colleagues on the Republican side who have to deal with the wrath of a President who doesn't get everything he wants when he wants it--the reality is that President Trump himself has made it clear that the people he wants appointed, that he will appoint to the court, are people who will put him first, not the Constitution; to put his political whims, his political desires first.

He has got the right person in Bove, but that is the wrong person for us to confirm.

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