Justice official nominated to be Philly-based federal judge told Trump administration to ignore court orders on deportations, whistleblower alleges

On the eve of a confirmation hearing to become a federal appeals judge in Philadelphia, Trump administration official Emil Bove was accused by a whistleblower of saying U.S. officials should consider defying court orders that would block deportations of alleged gang members.

Bove, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump and the principal assistant deputy attorney general, was chosen by the president to fill a vacant seat on the federal appeals court based in Philadelphia.

The court, formally known as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, gets cases from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands. If confirmed by Congress, Bove would fill either the New Jersey or Delaware seat.

Before that happens, however, Bove must undergo congressional questioning on Wednesday.

The expected grilling will now include explosive allegations that Bove said in a March Justice Department meeting that the department would need to consider telling the courts “f— you,” and to “ignore” any judicial orders that would prevent the administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members.

The new information is contained in a letter written by Erez Reuveni, a 15-year department lawyer who was fired in April after telling a federal judge that the Trump administration had deported an immigrant in error, according to National Public Radio.

Reuveni was sacked after saying in an April court hearing that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man living in Maryland, should not have been deported to a prison in El Salvador, CNN reported.

“Mr. Reuveni was stunned by Bove’s statement because, to Mr. Reuveni’s knowledge, no one in DOJ leadership — in any administration — had ever suggested the Department of Justice could blatantly ignore court orders, especially with” an expletive, Reuveni’s lawyers wrote, according to the New York Times.

The newspaper originally published the story detailing Reuveni’s whistleblower revelations.

Bove has been involved in several controversial matters during his career.

Bove defended Trump when he was convicted last year of concealing $130,000 in hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.

In January, Bove fired more than a dozen prosecutors who had been working on cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A month later, Bove signed the motion that allowed the Justice Department to move to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, which led seven federal prosecutors in New York and Washington to resign in protest.

The Adams dismissal, Democratic lawmakers alleged, was part of a quid pro quo that assured Adams’ cooperation with Trump administration efforts to deal with undocumented immigrants. Adams denied the allegation.

Bove has participated in various “questionable” acts, according to Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will be conducting Bove’s confirmation hearing Wednesday.

“As a senior Justice Department official, Mr. Bove has abused his position in numerous ways,” Durbin said in a statement on Tuesday. He went on to urge his colleagues to not “turn a blind eye to the dire consequences of confirming Mr. Bove to a lifetime position as a circuit court judge.”

Defending Bove, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — another lawyer who represented Trump in his 2024 criminal trial — denied the whistleblower allegations as “utterly false.”

Blanche wrote that he was at the meeting where Bove allegedly raised the idea of disobeying court orders.

“At no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed,” he said. “Planting a false hit piece the day before a confirmation hearing is something we have come to expect from the media, but it does not mean it should be tolerated,” Blanche wrote.