Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Tuesday that the panel will proceed with a scheduled vote on Emil Bove’s nomination this week, rejecting Democrats’ calls for a second hearing to investigate whistleblower claims that President Donald Trump‘s judicial nominee encouraged Department of Justice lawyers to defy court orders.
Bove, nominated to the 3rd United States Circuit Court of Appeals, has been scrutinized by Democrats following allegations from former DOJ official Erez Reuveni.
Reuveni, who was later fired from the DOJ, claims Bove suggested during a March 14 meeting that DOJ attorneys could tell judges “f*** you” if courts tried to block deportations to El Salvador.
Despite that claim, Grassley said the committee would not deviate from precedent and dismissed the need for a second hearing.
“Many times during the last administration, then-Chairman Dick Durbin said ‘there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans on this Committee and another set of rules for Democrats,’” Grassley wrote in a letter to Democratic members. “I agree with this statement and intend to adhere to the precedent of then-Chairman Durbin.”
Bove, who previously served on Trump’s criminal defense team, testified before the committee on June 25 and submitted 165 pages of written responses. He denied wrongdoing under oath at the hearing: “I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order.”
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