The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Emil Bove, a senior Justice Department official and former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, as Democrats staged a walkout over what they called an abuse of committee process.
The panel approved Bove and four district court nominees along party lines, moving the Trump administration’s latest slate of judicial picks closer to confirmation. A full Senate vote on Bove could come as early as next week.
Senate Democrats exited the hearing in protest, claiming Republicans cut off debate and denied them a chance to speak. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) gave an extended floor speech accusing Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) of breaking Senate rules and rushing the vote.
.@SenBooker on Emil Bove's nomination: "Federal prosecutors — career professionals — have raised strong reservations about Mr. Bove, who had undermined their legitimate work to hold accountable people who did the most horrific acts of violence [on January 6th]." pic.twitter.com/v4Pih1N9gM
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 17, 2025
“This is just wrong in every way,” Booker said. “You are a good man. You are a decent man. Why are you doing this? What is Donald Trump saying to you that is making you do something which is violating the decorum of this committee?”
Grassley dismissed Democratic concerns over the vote’s handling, saying that in his years on the committee, he has seen “a lot of confirmation fights.”
“What we’re witnessing has all the hallmarks of a political hit job timed for maximum media splash with minimum substance,” Grassley said.
Bove, who represented Trump during criminal cases pursued by Democratic prosecutors and the Biden administration, has been criticized by Democrats for his role in several high-profile decisions, including the removal of prosecutors who handled Jan. 6, 2021, riot cases, the dismissal of corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, and allegations that he suggested the DOJ defy court orders in immigration enforcement.
Over 900 former DOJ attorneys have urged the committee not to confirm Bove, while senior officials, including staff for Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, have dismissed the outcry from advocacy groups for former DOJ officials, such as Justice Connection, as a “political hit squad.”
Justice Connection is a political hit squad masquerading as a support network and they certainly don’t speak for DOJ. They speak for a bitter faction angry they no longer call the shots. Their attacks on Emil Bove are dishonest, coordinated, and disgraceful.
— Brian Nieves (@BrianNievesDOJ) July 16, 2025
But under sworn testimony, Bove rejected the accusations. He told senators he was not involved in any effort to broker or dangle pardons to Jan. 6 defendants, denied that the Adams case was dismissed for political reasons, and stated he never instructed subordinates to ignore lawful court orders. Instead, Bove maintained that all decisions were based on the law and prosecutorial discretion.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has also dismissed the attacks on Bove as politically motivated attempts to derail a qualified nominee. She has defended his record as “principled and fearless,” and GOP lawmakers echoed that support during Thursday’s session.
In addition to party-line fighting over the nominees on Thursday, Booker raised concerns related to the fallout of the DOJ’s release of information about the late disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, as Trump has endured outrage from his base over his DOJ’s seeming reversal on promises to release additional Epstein-related records.
Booker also pressed for any records relating to Bove’s alleged “participation” in handling the rollout of Epstein-related materials on Wednesday, “given the contradictory statements by Attorney General Bondi concerning the existence of an Epstein ‘client list’ and the DOJ’s stated commitment to transparency.”
Similar criticism has been lobbed by the American Values Alliance, a group involving former Biden White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates along with former George W. Bush and John Boehner adviser Terry Holt, who said the Senate “owes the American people transparency into any involvement Bove has had in the Epstein matter.”
DOJ TORCHES ‘DISGRUNTLED’ LEAKER TARGETING TRUMP JUDICIAL NOMINEE EMIL BOVE
Alongside Bove, the committee approved four Trump-nominated judges to district courts in Florida: Ed Artau for the Southern District and Kyle Dudek, Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe, and Jordan E. Pratt for the Middle District.
The committee also considered a slate of U.S. attorney nominees, including Kurt Alme (Montana), Nicholas W. Chase (North Dakota), Lesley Murphy (Nebraska), Jeanine Pirro (District of Columbia), Daniel Rosen (Minnesota), Erik Siebert (Eastern District of Virginia), and Kurt Wall (Middle District of Louisiana).
